Fresno claims title of 'True Garlic Capital of California'

Dennis Pollock

Special to the Village News

If you open your car window just a tad as you drive through Gilroy, you're almost certain to detect a distinctive smell: Garlic.

It's a smell that Kevin Collins, a manager at Borba Farms in Fresno County, loves. He's a grower of garlic, after all.

"A dairyman likes the smell of cow manure," he said. "I like the smell of garlic."

(Gilroy smells that way because of a major dehydrator operated there by the multinational Olam Group. Much of the garlic grown in Fresno County goes elsewhere for processing into fresh bulbs or dehydrated powder.)

But Collins,...