Garlic fans, it’s time to celebrate — the Goats and Garlic festival is just around the corner.

Hosted at the Simple Goodness Sisters in Wilkeson, the eighth-annual event will feature vendors selling numerous varieties of garlic, plus the chance to play with baby goats, just as the name suggests.

Local vendors include Enumclaw Farms, Feral Daughter Farm, and Monkey Motion.

There will also be additional non-garlic vendors — Stiny Dips (Garlic based dip), Gramma Bertas Pantry, Grace’s Bangles, Chicks and Roses, and Just a Pizza My Mind (a food truck with garlic specials) — live music, and special garlic-themed foods, which includes a garlic beer.

There is also live music:Kyle James Music from 11:30 – 2.m., and The Lindsley Brothers from 2:30 – 4:30 p.m.

The free event is on Aug. 18 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF GARLIC?

While there are hundreds of unique varieties of garlic, there are — depending on who you ask — only 10 or 11 different horticultural groups of garlic.

There’s softnecks, which most people are used to buying at the grocery store because they grow in a variety of climates and have a better shelf-life than others: Silverskin, Artichoke, and Middle Eastern.

Then there are the hardnecks: Porcelain, Rocambole, Purple Stripe, Glazed Purple Stripe, Marble Purple Stripe, Asiatic, Turban, and Creole.

Each, of course, has a different profile, and different garlics are recommended for various dishes.

For example, softnecks in general are more mild than hardnecks, so you may want to avoid the latter when it comes to a garlic-heavy meal.