Garlic Festival brings treats and vampires to Riverhead

Call it a field of dreams for folks who simply can’t get enough garlic. At the 22nd annual Long Island Garlic Festival, held Sept. 14 and 15 at Waterdrinker North Fork in Riverhead, practically anything you touch, try or taste will be flavored with the aromatic bulb in all its infinite varieties.

"People love garlic, and we’ll have 35 acres of garlicky stuff," Waterdrinker owner Marc Weiss says. The garlic-a-thon, he says, is "all about celebrating the harvest season, supporting local vendors and enjoying great garlic in all of its forms."

The fragrant fun includes more than 40 vendors, a garlic-eating contest open to all, Instagrammable garlic-centric photo backdrops and a wandering vampire character who’ll let you sink your teeth into a sweet treat.

While seasonal and food-centric fests at the farm are known to bring out the crowds, Weiss says Waterdrinker is expecting a smaller gathering than the turnout seen at the July pickle festival, which caused a vendor backup and cluttered waiting areas. "We don't expect the same level of demand for garlic that we had for pickles on a stick," he says. "We've got food trucks; we've got live music, the haunted corn maze, so there will be plenty of other attractions for people to enjoy. We're also going to have free water stations, more porta potties and more security guards to control the crowds."

Here are five ways to breathe in what its organizers are dubbing "the stinkiest festival on Long Island."

Taste the local cloves

Four or five Long Island farms will be offering festivalgoers an opportunity to taste and take home garlic grown here, Weiss says.

Among those setting up tasting tents and sales is Phil Barbato, 77, of Jamesport, owner and operator of Biophilia Organic Farm of Jamesport.

Barbato will be the guy chewing a garlic clove as he greets festivalgoers and offers them garlic samples. "We’ll have one called music, one called Sicilian purple, and 10 more" varieties of garlic on display, he says. All 12 will be "sliced up and ready to be tasted," Barbato adds of a food he believes is "good for your health."

As for garlic breath? Tasters also get a sprig of parsley to cure this sometimes unpleasant side effect. Individual bulbs ($2-$3) as well as braids of 10 garlic bulbs ($30-35) will be sold, the latter for hanging up in the home kitchen.

Enter the Island’s stinkiest contest

If you have the stomach for it, enter the annual garlic-eating contest, which drew 25 contestants last year. Entrants have two minutes to eat as many small cloves of unskinned raw garlic as they can. Prizes include a T-shirt and a bottle of mouthwash, Weiss says.

The rules are, um, hard to swallow.

"You have to chew and swallow each garlic clove before you eat another piece," says Daniel "D.J." Horn, 29, of Manorville, who came in first last year by gulping down 22 cloves. That’s not even Horn’s personal best of 26 cloves in another contest, resulting in a tie.

Horn plans to enter again this year despite what he calls "the price of victory: You’ll smell like garlic for a week."

Try the garlic ice cream

Horn, manager at Snowflake Ice Cream Shoppe in Riverhead, also makes a unique dessert: garlic ice cream. This might be your only chance to savor this unusual confection which ice-cream maker Horn produces only once a year. "We only make it for the festival," Horn says.

Eat garlic ice cream with a vampire

Another festival favorite: wandering vampiress Denise Wisnieski, 63, of Manorville. While not selling garlic ice cream and other goodies at the concession stand, Wisnieski roams around dressed as what she calls a "vampiress" wearing a long-sleeved black dress and spooky makeup.

Wisnieski says she’s known for being personable and letting out what she calls her "Dracula laugh."

She’ll also pose in full regalia — fangs included — with guests in front of the fest’s haunted house, one of several photo ready backdrops in the fields.

Try garlic with everything else

When it comes to this popular pungent seasoning — the pumpkin spice-like possibilities seem endless this year — Weiss says in addition to garlic bread and garlic seasoning for the kitchen shelf, festivalgoers can buy garlic cookies, lemonade, roasted corn and other garlicky goodies.

Says Weiss: "All of the food trucks will have garlic items."