Chef's & Lecturer's
Ted Maczka
The “Johnny Appleseed of Garlic” as he gives away free garlic seed all over the United States. His Canadian farm is an experimental station for the testing of cold-hardy strains of garlic and he will talk about his revolutionary new way of growing garlic.
Kevin Archer
of the Catskill Animal Sanctuary where he provides the knowledge, skills and encouragement people need to incorporate a plant-based diet into their lives.He received his training at the School of Natural Cookery in Boulder, Colorado and the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute in Ft. Bragg, California. Kevin has owned his own market and cafe, served as private chef and consultant, and cooked at many notable restaurants in California, Colorado and New Mexico. In his spare time, Kevin enjoys reading, writing poetry and prose, and gardening. -
Pat Crocker
River Song Herbals – Culinary Herbalist is the term Pat Crocker coined to describe her work, her expertise, her passion for food, and her love of herbs. A professional Home Economist (Ryerson Polytechnical University: BAA, Food, Nutrition, Consumer and Family Studies), Pat specializes in creative presentations with a particular focus on herbs and food and how each affect our health. - http://www.riversongherbals.com
Ric Orlando
A man with a colorful past, Ric’s cultural roots stem from the underground music and art scene from the late 1970s through 1980s in New York, New Haven, and Boston. Orlando gathered his passion for Global flavor eating cheap ethnic urban food while a “starving artist” and developed in his culinary experience at groundbreaking restaurants such as the Elm City Diner in New Haven, (the original) Harvest in Cambridge, Massachusetts,The Wild Goose in Boston, Sugar Reef in Manhattan, and Yates Street and Justin’s in Albany.He has cooked in the kitchens widely of respected chefs Bob Kinkead, Jake Jabobus, and Emmett Fox. 2010 Food Network CHOPPED CHAMPION.
David Stern
has farmed small fruits and vegetables atRose Valley Farm for 35 years.His certified organic farm is between Lake Ontario and the Finger Lakes inUpstate New York. He has produced garlic for over 30 years and was a co-founder of the Garlic Seed Foundation in 1984. He has been the Director of the Foundation since its inception, and is a Board member of its parent organization, Friends of Garlic, Inc. For many years, he has researched, written about, lectured about, and eaten a lot of garlic. You can look for David at or nearby the Garlic Seed Foundation tent.
Noah Gress
Vegetable grower, has been practicing organic farming since 1993. Inspired by an organic farmer in western Pennsylvania, Noah began an apprenticeship at Solviva Farm in West Tisbury, Massachusetts. After working with the staff for two years, Noah became farm manager. Although the principle crop at Solviva Farm was salad mix, it was there that Noah first grew garlic. In 1998 the young farmer returned to Pennsylvania where he is still farming today. For the last five years, he has been farming at Pete’s Produce Farm in Westtown. Noah grows salad mix, carrots, arugala, soybeans and of course garlic. This year the farm grew two thousand pounds. Music is the principle variety cultivated at Pete’s. Legacy, Red Russian, Kebar and Persian Star are some of the other varieties grown.
Garlic is a rewarding and a profitable crop. The renewed interest in garlic as an “east coast crop” makes this grant even more exciting. The research will aid growers in distinguishing different types of garlic, which up until now has been the subject of much debate. The decreased yields in California, coupled with imported garlic is encouraging the agricultural community to rethink how and where garlic is grown in the United States. I am grateful to be part of this project. I hope the results provide practical information for the scientist and farmer alike. – Noah