A little background on this first photo.......
At 11AM on July 8th, 2004 we received a fax from NBC's Today Show in NY.....
"Call us about garlic braids"
"OK!"
"Can you make a 9-foot garlic braid and two 2-foot braids?"
"SURE!!"
"We need it delivered by tomorrow morning!"
"(YIKES!) No problem!!"
The garlic was hanging in the rafters of our curing barn just the way it had come out of the field...roots full of dirt.
So we called Jean's Mom & Dad (Hazel & Sid Pitches) and asked them to come out to help clean garlic,
called the MailBoxes Etc in Richmond to see how late we could get to them for overnight shipping,
and started madly cleaning about 50LBs of garlic. Jean's folks arrived bearing lunch so we didn't have to think about that,
and we all spent the afternoon brushing roots and peeling bulbs.
I think it was about 3:30 PM when we got it all cleaned and then we had to get it braided!!
We managed to shoot a few photos before Leo took off for the shipping store, arriving with only minutes to spare.
Quite an adventure for a usually quiet farm!
The big braid's first debut on the Today Show was a real disappointment, as it was only visible for a couple of seconds, but in late January we happened to be tuned in one morning when they were doing an "iron chef" segment and lo and behold there was the braid in all its glory!! The famous chef Mario Batali was standing right beside it! A real thrill for us.
November
2006
What
a thrill we had on October 31st!! NBC's Today Show called again!
At
first they asked for 2 nine-foot garlic braids and some smaller ones.
After some discussion,
we
settled on 2 six-foot softneck braids, 1 six-foot hardneck braid, and 5
smaller braids. They needed them in NYC on Friday morning (3 days
later!) as they were preparing for a 5-part Italian Cooking School segment
featuring Chef Jamie Oliver
(the Naked Chef)....one of our favorites!!! Talk about motivation!!
It came down to the wire again getting them to the UPS shipper in time
for overnight delivery to NYC. We would have loved to get a photo
with all 8 braids in it, but time was too tight! We felt lucky to
have the time to get these three photographed- aren't they awesome?
Packing a hardneck braid that size in a box was quite an experience!
The softnecks can be coiled into a flat box, but those stick-like stems
on the hardneck needed to be uncrimped! We ended up building one
6-foot box out of two 4-foot ones. The young lady at the UPS Store
was mystified, having no idea what a garlic braid even WAS! The following
Monday, Nov.6th, we had our VCR set to tape, not knowing if we'd be able
to see the braids at all. When the segment started we were delighted
to see the big braids draped on the racks behind the cooking area, and
smaller braids hanging all around. Each day for five days we were
glued to the TV to see our "babies" with Jamie and the Today Show folks!
Here's a link to the first day's show:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15548907/
See
what happened on Sunday11/5/06!
NPR's Noah Adams came to visit!
November 2004- next 2 photos
Here's a garland we made for some friends
in Norfolk, VA to decorate their entryway for Christmas.
It was approximately 9 feet long.
They incorporated some lights and some Christmas greens for the finished
effect.
This next braid was made "on spec" for
our farmers' market, 2004.
See more photos- "Up top" where we live, The "bottom" where we farm, or Our "family" (pets).
