Garlic is the herb of the year in the herbal world for 2004 and true to this theme, the focus of the Fourth Garlic is Life Symposium took a closer look at our favorite topic, gourmet garlic. The seminars this year were on the DNA fingerprinting of garlic and the progress report on the true garlic seed development program. Also on the agenda was a discussion of the importance of seed banks and the preservation of planting stocks as well as the presentation of a report on the study on storing garlic at a constant temperature of 27 degrees F.

These people have designer garlic breath; they don't have ordinary garlic breath. They have Metechi breath or Burgundy breath or Spanish Roja or Music or Red Toch breath. This year, there was a distinct aura of Red Toch, Chester Aaron's favorite garlic, in the air because our host, Darrell Merrell, passed out copious amounts of Red Toch at all of the meals. I had almost forgotten the sweet, delicate flavor of this wonderfully mellow garlic. Thanks again, Chester, for making it a popular garlic.

These are the people who invented designer garlic breath. Eating garlic makes you feel really good. Have you ever noticed that people with garlic breath are usually grinning? These folks are almost giddy at times.

Darrell Merrell and Chester Aaron, author of Garlic is Life, among many other books went international again for the fourth Symposium by inviting special guest Joachim Keller, Ph. D., Head of a working group of the Institute for Plant Genetics and Crop Research in Gaterslaben, Germany.

Dr. Keller spoke on the importance of gene banks and also delivered a presentation showing the geographical distribution of the various subgroups of garlic in comparison to DNA fingerprinting and morphological data. He emphasized the value of the Gatersleben collection because of the high proportion of accessions directly collected in the various growing areas of Europe, the Mediterranean and the garlic crescent area of Asia. He also described the various germplasm conservation methods which are used in his institute such as field cultivation, in vitro storage and cryopreservation

In my view, gene banks are especially important in a world of GMO plants whose pollen is spreading around the world on the winds and adversely affecting the biological foundation that has been successful for millions of years. That humans can change the future forever by interfering with nature for short term profit is truly frightening.

Lunch and breaks are catered by Lisa Merrell and Lisa Becklund and are always organic and delicious. We eat danish and coffee in mid-morning, and for lunch have the best subs with fabulous cheeses, sprouts and meats on really chewy loaves that are worth the eight hour drive to get here, by themselves. They feed us homemade cookies and tea/soft drinks at mid-afternoon.

Gayle Volk, Ph. D., of the USDA's National Seed Storage Laboratory in Fort Collins, CO, gave us a report on the progress of her study into the classification of garlics using a technique called Amplified Fragment-Length Polymorphism (AFLP). She said "We determined that there was much more genetic diversity present among hardnecks than softneck types. We could also use our genetic tests to distinguish artichokes, porcelains, rocamboles, purple stripes, marbled purple stripes and asiatics. We were unable to genetically differentiate between many of the garlic accessions with different names using our tests, indicating that some of the varieties with different names may be genetically very similar. Overall, there was about 50% duplication in most of the collections we tested."

Walt Lyons, Ph. D., of thegarlicstore.com also of Fort Collins, delivered a paper detailing his study of storing garlic at 27 degrees F and 32 degrees F. Surprisingly, garlic kept better at 27 than it did at 32 and was still viable for eating or planting after a year and could be stored at room temperature for a few months more. This was a very much needed study and I'm glad he did it and reported his findings. This can help deal with many problems of storage and is an active aid to reducing the likelihood of contamination by plant pathogens or pests. Hats off to Walt! I think you have done all of us a favor.

Thursday evening we ate at a wonderful new restaurant in Tulsa, called Anner's. Anners is an organic restaurant located on the ground floor of a luxury high rise condo on the banks of the Arkansas River, has the look and feel of a really fine hotel and just oozes class. The carpets are thick and they use real linen and big, well upholstered chairs. The light is dim and there is the aroma of garlic roasting in the kitchen, garlic being sauteed and chopped and diced as well. Most of the dishes feature garlic prepared in every way you can imagine.