The scent of garlic returns
”
Few people in Gilroy realize the value of the garlic crop now
being harvested and shipped to the East coast. Twenty carloads
amounting to 2500 tons were shipped last week. Growers Joe
Giovannoni and E.F. Speigh are paid 5 cents per pound.
”
Gilroy Advocate, June 28, 1929
The scent of garlic returns
“Few people in Gilroy realize the value of the garlic crop now being harvested and shipped to the East coast. Twenty carloads amounting to 2500 tons were shipped last week. Growers Joe Giovannoni and E.F. Speigh are paid 5 cents per pound.” Gilroy Advocate, June 28, 1929
Although garlic was grown in family gardens for personal use as early as the 1890s by Gilroy’s Italian immigrants, the cash crop itself did not begin to emerge until the early 1920s. By 1924, the product caught hold and was being shipped out of the area. Local garlic acreage was soon extended in Gilroy and the surrounding area. In Hollister, by 1929, the total harvest brought in $300,000.
Before long, rows of farmland were being turned over to the stinking rose. Commercial value of the flavorful bulb had risen to such popularity that farmers had to begin guarding their crops. In a 1931 incident, the Tashema brothers, who rented acreage on the Warnick Ranch near San Juan Bautista, were victimized when someone wrote them a false check for $800 and made off with 150 sacks of garlic.
By 1932, there were 2100 acres of garlic being cultivated in Gilroy and San Juan Bautista, and farmers were facing increased demand for the product across the country. By January, 1934, Gilroy’s Chamber of Commerce took steps to secure an increase in Federal tariff on the product, because European garlic had begun to flow into Eastern states, causing a rise in growing and shipping costs which threatened California growers.
In the Gilroy area, garlic’s fame continued to grow. Along with increased demand from consumers, competition among statewide growers was fierce. Locals were bursting with pride when a newspaper announcement in late June, 1936 proudly announced that, “as per usual,” Gilroy had beaten everyone to the draw, being the first locale in the entire West to ship out the year’s first carload of garlic. The year’s kickoff began when 603 bags of the product had been sent East by the Herschel California Products Company, with W.B. Stuart as its representative. Cost was listed as $3.50 per 100 lb. Bag. “There is a years-long reputation of Gilroy being first to ship,” the announcement boasted. By then, 2450 acres were given over to garlic production, with 2 million pounds shipped. Even the lettuce-driven Salinas economy had jumped on the garlic bandwagon, upping its garlic growing acreage by 20% for the season. In 1937, area grower Joe Giovannoni was unofficially proclaimed the “Garlic King.”
Four years later, in early 1941, the Gentry Chili Powder Company of Los Angeles completed a new dehydration plant just east of Gilroy. The plant was finished in time to begin processing garlic produced by the area’s increasing list of local farmers, which by then included the Ning Young and Jimmy Hirasaki families.
The Gentry Company, from its beginnings during World War II, was considered the most outstanding dehydration plant in the United States. Dried, packaged vegetables from the company, including onions and garlic, were easy to ship to troops overseas as well as to provide food for starving citizens in war-torn countries during the postwar period. The United States Navy during the period made a motion picture of Gentry’s plant operations. The film was used as an educational program for mess officers and cooks, to demonstrate different methods of properly preparing dehydrated food.
Locally, the war effort’s advertising campaigns emphasized garlic consumption for health benefits, as well as for a tasty addition to brighten dull meals during wartime food rationing. Garlic soon became popular, not just for the boys overseas but for folks across the nation waiting at home.
Citizens of Gilroy for decades could look forward to the toasty-pungent aroma of garlic being processed during harvest season, when aromas from the Gentry plant drifted into town. When combined during the late summer and early fall with the smell of ripe tomatoes being processed at the Filice and Perelli cannery, the enticing odors caused several generations of townsfolk to think of a hearty Italian meal.
The garlic industry took a giant step forward in 1979, with the start of the now annual local tradition, the Gilroy Garlic Festival. For a long weekend in July, the event fills the area with visitors from around the world, eager to try garlic in all its forms.
Of course, the jokes abound. Despite the evident prosperity the product has brought the area for the better part of 85 years, garlic jokes and Gilroy seem to go together like Mutt and Jeff. The permeating, enticing garlic aroma, long since customary summer smell to locals, were once addressed in comments by noted social observer and comedian Will Rogers. On a visit to town, he noted that Gilroy is “the only town in America where you can marinate a steak just by hanging it out on a clothesline.”
We’ll buy that.
