Cooking show host Laura McIntosh had just asked the crowd at the 2008 Gilroy Garlic Festival how long it takes to grow garlic from seed to harvest. Who was this guy in the bright blue shirt with the quick reply? No one other than Don Christopher, and he should know the answer to that question: he's co-founder of the festival and owner of Christopher Ranch, supplier of the Official Garlic of the Gilroy Garlic Festival.

"We plant 3,200 acres," he told festival-goers. "And in the whole state of California, it's around 20,000 acres."

McIntosh asked Christopher to come up on stage for an on-the-spot interview Saturday at the 2008 Festival. McIntosh is the host, producer and director of a cooking show called, "Bringing It Home with Laura McIntosh," which airs on various stations throughout California and on the PBS series "California Heartland."

"So, on a show about garlic," the fifth generation farmer's daughter told the audience, "We'd bring you to a great event like the Gilroy Garlic Festival, but then we'd also go out to Don Christopher's Ranch and packing facility to show you what it takes to plant and produce garlic, to harvest the garlic and get it out to all of us, to our grocery stores, retail outlets and farmer's markets."

Don Christopher recounted the story of garlic in Gilroy and how his family came here from Denmark to grow prunes.

"We started farming in the 1880s," he said. "Well, I did not start in the 1880s - my grandfather did," he clarified as the audience laughed. "We started marketing garlic in 1960." Christopher had to peddle his own wares to build up the business. He loaded up an old truck on went on he road.

"I put boxes of garlic on it and took it up to Oakland," he said. "I had a buyer up there who bought a couple of pallets, and that's how we got started. Then I went to San Francisco to their produce market. We started with 10 acres and just kept on going."

When asked about the health benefits of garlic, he first began to describe how it thins the blood so that it does away with the need for taking a daily aspirin tablet, as many people do who are at risk of heart attack or stroke. Then he paused, looked out at the audience, and said, "If you don't believe it, that's too bad. We don't promote garlic for health benefits: we promote it because it tastes so damn good!"

He said that the garlic grown in Gilroy has superior flavor, since it is grown from heirloom seed which originally came from France and Italy. Varieties of garlic have distinctly different flavors, and choosing a garlic variety is much like choosing a wine or chocolate.

"How do you know if it's Christopher Ranch Garlic?!" Christopher shouted to the crowd. "How?" the crowd shouted back. "Because it's not clean and waxed. It's still got the roots on it!" he answered. "The roots remain intact, whereas with garlic imported from China, you'll often notice they've been shaved off."

When he heard he was being broadcast via BBC Web cam all the way to the United Kingdom, Christopher quickly added, "Try all the garlic; there is no real bad garlic. It's all good. Ours is just better, that's all. Gilroy's just it!"

Cheaper imported Chinese garlic had decreased the demand for Christopher Ranch-grown garlic in recent years, but Christopher said, "We're back up the other way a little bit. We're very happy and we thank you people."

This year's pungent pageant used 3.5 tons of garlic to feed 107,553 visitors.

"It's the peak of the garlic season right now," Christopher said. "We pack out a million and a half pounds a week."

Kat Teraji Kat Teraji is communications coordinator for a large non-profit organization that benefits women and children. Her column appears every Thursday in the Take 2 section of the Dispatch. You can reach her at kattoy@verizon.net.