The Rural Voice, 1989-03, Page 28Mommo
The Fish Lake Garlic Man
by Dee Kramer
•
Ted Maczka: "1 am the Garlic King of Canada. 1 am a walking encyclopedia.
1 think and know more about garlic than anyone in the world. 1 have no equal."
ithin a couple of hours on a
warm Saturday in late Octo-
ber, three cars turn into Ted
Maczka's driveway in search of garlic.
These people have come to buy garlic
from the "Garlic King" of Canada. He
is an elderly man with a slight limp
from a war -wound, whose life's ambi-
tion is "to make Canada self-sufficient
in garlic and develop a variety of
garlic which will make Canada the
garlic capital of the world."
"I am the Garlic King of Canada. I
am a walking encyclopedia. I think
and know more about garlic than
anyone in the world. I have no equal."
A windbreakered farmer in a red
pick-up wants to buy garlic from the
king, as does a couple in an old sedan
from a town west of Ottawa. "I don't
know if you remember us," says the
Ottawa man, "We came here in the
spring looking for garlic but you'd
sold out. We said we'd be back, and
here we are."
A large American Buick with
visitors from Mississippi also turns
into the driveway. They are staying
with their daughter in Kemptville.
They had heard about Maczka and his
garlic, and could not resist making the
detour to buy some garlic "while we
were in the vicinity."
It is not as though the customers
are on their way to someplace else and
are passing by Maczka's gate. You
can get lost trying to find the dirt road
that leads to his farm near the town of
Demorestville, close to Fish Lake, on
the island that makes up Prince
Edward County in eastern Ontario.
But Maczka says to keep the windows
open and follow the smell.
Maczka's garlic haven is known
by all who search for the ideal garlic
clove. Exotic cooking using large
quantities of garlic is gaining popular-
ity. Maczka grows pink garlic that
you cannot buy in stores but which is
valued for its deep, rich, culinary
aroma. He has also developed a garlic
variety especially for chefs, which has
many cloves under one skin, which
cuts down on peeling.
There is an increased interest in
more natural ways of keeping healthy
which includes pursuing a long life
with the help of garlic. The custom-
ers, motivated by the tradition of
garlic as a life preserver, believe in its
medicinal value and want Maczka's
garlic because it is grown organically.
The use garlic as anything from an an-
tiseptic to an aphrodisiac, for release
from insomnia and even as a relief
from poison ivy. An article called
"Strong Medicine" in the Globe and
Mail of October 17, 1984, says garlic
"may help to prevent heart disease. In
26 THE RURAL VOCE