Discovering the Joys of Garlic Scapes

You may be asking yourself, “What in the heck is a garlic scape?” In a word: Delicious! More specifically though, the garlic scape is a thicker stem that grows out of the center of the hard neck garlic varieties. A flower bulb forms on the end that will produce seeds if left alone. The scape grows tall and will eventually curl around, giving it a rather exotic look. These tend to come up in June depending on your location and climate. Garlic basically gives you a double harvest: 2 months before it is time to pull them out of the ground, you get to harvest the scapes and enjoy some early summer treats.

You want to cut the scape low to the plant, but be sure not to damage any leaves around it. It was recommended to me to cut them in the afternoon. The idea behind this is the warmer temperatures will help to scab the wound you just created which will help minimize infection or fungus from ruining your garlic plant.

Most people grow garlic from a clove off a bulb planted in the Fall versus seeds. We planted these cloves in the previous Fall and have found it to produce better than in spring. Since you usually plant what you also eat, you want your harvest to be the largest and healthiest it can be! Cutting the scape after it curls but before the flower opens (some sites say to cut before it curls) is a must as the energy will be sent back into increasing your bulb size instead of producing the flower and seeds. The best part is these scapes are 100% edible (yes, even the bulb) and have a fantastic garlic flavor. If you let your scape get too large, it may be tougher and more ‘woody.’ I have a couple that are like that and my plan is to freeze them and use them in a stew or soup that will simmer for several hours on a low heat. They will soften and release all that incredible flavor. You can also dehydrate them by cutting them into 1/4 inch pieces to be used later.

For the tender, young shoots of garlic goodness the possibilities are limitless. Saute’ them up with some other greens, use like a green onion, chop it up into a salad, use in a marinade (which I plan to do tonight) for some extra flavor. There is also the option of just eating them raw and whole after cutting them as well but I wouldn’t suggest kissing anyone right after. 😉 You can preserve them by freezing. They will last a good 4-5 days in the fridge as well. I would imagine that they would also be something really special if you pickled some! I plan on taking a few of them and dehydrating them that will be featured in a future post. I haven’t heard of anyone dehydrating them before. If they are successfully dehydrated and then rehydrated…I will try to grind it into a powder and see how that goes, too so keep an eye out for more as the summer progresses. (UPDATE: They dehydrated well but did not grind into a powder.)

Today I harvested about half of what was available. The other half isn’t quite ready. Notice the difference in bulbs in the picture? That is because 4 of our garlic plants are an elephant garlic variety (milder flavor, HUGE bulbs and cloves) that we got sent to us from Mr. Dreamer’s family on Vashon Island in Washington. It is doing incredibly well; the stalks are almost double the thickness of my thumb!

Do you grow garlic? What kind? What do you do with your scapes? Give us a comment below, we love hearing from our readers!