Editor's Note: The 34th annual Gilroy Garlic Festival is just over a week away and Gilroy Patch can't wait to savor the flavor creations featuring everyone's favorite allium sativum, a.k.a garlic, plus experience the music and entertainment set to be served up this year.
Over the upcoming days, we'll be previewing events, food and must-knows about the event, going down July 27 through 29 at .
Julia Brewka isn't your typical 21-year-old. The Morgan Hill native is a nursing student at the University of San Francisco, where she’s set to graduate in 2013, and hopes to go into pediatric nursing. While this may seem relatively normal, she has a title none of her classmates do: Miss Gilroy Garlic Festival 2012.
In other words, she's the queen of the fest.
"I'm just so excited," she said of her role. "I honestly can't stop smiling whenever I talk about it."
Brewka beat out other area hopefuls to take the crown in March. Her sister, Jessica, won the title four years ago, inspiring her little sister to go for the title.
"I was a member of her court and I saw what she got to do, what kind of person it made her and the experiences she got to have," Brewka said. "I thought I could do well in the position, too."
Jessica embarked on a host of excursions, including one to Gilroy's sister city of Takko-Machi, Japan. The younger Brewka hopes to get an invitation to visit the same city at this year's Garlic Festival.
As a representative of the fest and of Gilroy, Brewka said she's been to a number of events already, including Relay for Life and a San Francisco Giants game.
"I really feel like we made an impact in getting people excited for the festival," she said of her garlic-related outings.
She's also had several chances to rehash her minute-and-a-half long pageant speech about garlic, which she emulated after a Steve Jobs' MacWorld conference presentation.
"I dressed up as Steve Jobs and did a presentation on the iGarlic, an iPad shaped like garlic," she said. "It had apps on it to help you navigate through the festival and a device for measuring your BGC—blood garlic content."
At the fest, Brewka will be walking Gourmet Alley, talking with her subjects and sampling the decadent garlic fare along side them. She'll also oversee several cooking competitions and grace with her presence.
When asked what she's most excited about, Brewka is hard pressed to pick just one feature of the festival.
"I'm just looking forward to the whole three days," she said. "I want to get the most out of it and I hope they don't go by too quickly. I'm going to savor every moment of it."
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