Garlic the belle of the ball on coast Town Hill festival hails odorous herb

BAR HARBOR – Love stinks.

Just ask Frank Pendola, founder of the Town Hill Garlic Festival. He’s so smitten with the aromatic bulb that he’s turning his entire front yard into a garlic patch.

But if there’s one thing he loves even more than garlic, it’s community.

“It’s not just our garlic festival,” Pendola said recently while stirring a stockpot full of tomato sauce in his home-based catering business, Nostrano. “It belongs to the town. It belongs to everybody.”

And starting this year, everybody benefits from it. It has grown from a backyard party for locals to celebrate “getting their island back,” to a serious fundraiser for local charities.

Profits from this year’s festival, which will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday at Atlantic Brewing Co., will benefit Mount Desert Island Water Quality Coalition. The group will in turn donate a portion of its proceeds to watershed relief efforts in the Gulf Coast region. Locally, the donation will help fund student research fellowships and classroom outreach programs.

“We are such a small group, actually, the funds from the garlic festival are really needed and are really going to make some things possible for us this fall,” said the group’s executive director, Jane Disney.

Disney was a fan of the festival long before the windfall for her organization, however. Her husband was at the inaugural backyard fete, and she can smell the garlic from her office.

“We’ve watched it grow from year to year,” Disney said.

Pendola started the festival eight years ago, and it soon moved to the Atlantic Brewing Co. grounds. About 350 people came the first year, and last year’s event drew nearly 1,000.

Among the culinary highlights this year are Ropa Viejo, a Cuban dish by Cleonice chef Rich Hanson; smoked meats by Pendola and Chipper Butterworth of Chipper’s; New York-style chicken and steak panini from Carlo’s Ristorante; and garlic pizza by Little Anthony’s. Mainely Meats Barbecue and Morning Glory Bakery round out the mix.

Graves Supermarket donates much of the meat, while Wal-Mart, Shaw’s and Hannaford have given gift cards to offset the chefs’ expenses.

Blues rocker Mondo Charlie will be on hand with live music. The ever-popular keg-stacking contest and belt-sander races will return, as will the garlic king and queen coronation – with a garlic staff and crown, of course. Ed Lyons, garlic grower par excellence, also will sell garlic and garlic braids.

It’s been a good year for growing garlic, and Pendola anticipates a great garlic festival.

“It’s something I really love,” he said. “Now I’ve found a way to use it to make some money for people who really need it.”

The Town Hill Garlic Festival features an all-you-can-eat buffet for $20 per person, including a free souvenir pint glass; children under 10 eat free; beverages not included. The event will take place rain or shine. For information, call 288-0269. Kristen Andresen can be reached at 990-8287 and kandresen@bangordailynews.net.