THEY plan to lure tourists with the pungent smell of garlic.
On February 18, Meeniyan, population 681, where the sweet ABC drama Bed of Roses was shot, will host what organisers claim is Victoria's first garlic festival.
About 10 local garlic growers will bring their freshly harvested bulbs but the whole town is pitching in. Football club members will serve garlic calamari and fries, the Country Women's Association and Red Cross will serve garlic scones and cricketers will sell garlic beer.
The Meeniyan Store in the main street will serve garlic ice cream. There is not, as yet, a peppermint stall.
There will be 60 stalls from local food producers and artists, and bands, cooking classes and garlic plaiting workshops.
The festival is the idea of Kirsten Jones, a former gardener who moved to Mirboo six years ago with husband David to become a garlic farmer. The huge risk (she had never farmed before) paid off, with her recent harvest reaping two tonnes.
She and her daughter, Felicity, run The Meeniyan Store, which stocks produce from more than 50 local farms.
Mrs Jones read that garlic festivals in Gilroy, California, and on Britain's Isle of Wight attract 50,000 to 120,000 visitors and reckoned Meeniyan should have one, too.
Organisers are expecting 5000 visitors at Meeniyan, for starters.
Mr Jones, the marketing whiz behind the Royal Women's Hospital Mother's Day appeal, the Royal Melbourne Hospital home lottery and Opera in the Market, hopes the festival makes Meeniyan a "destination" in the way that Clunes, near Ballarat, is now known for its book fair.
Mr Jones said the garlic festival will celebrate the revival of Australian garlic. After tariffs were removed in the mid-1990s, the local industry was destroyed by cheap imports retailing for as low as $2 a kilo - five times less than Australian garlic. Hundreds of Australian growers couldn't compete and quit. Australian Garlic Industry Association membership dwindled to 10 and it folded.
But the craze for farmers' markets and locally grown food means shoppers are now willing to pay $30 a kilo at supermarkets for Australian garlic compared to as low as $10 a kilo for imported fare. The revived association has more than 150 members.
South Gippsland shire councillor Andrew McEwen sees the region becoming a new YarraValley or even Tuscany, as a high-end quality foodie destination.
Resident Avril van Wamel said the festival "is going to bring people into the town and showcase what a beautiful place this is, and how much there is to offer. Every group in town will be involved in some way."
The Age
