It’s time for garlic scapes!

It’s time again for garlic scapes, the part of the plant that would become a flower. Rather than letting the flower grow, most garlic farmers snip off the scape to direct the energy of the plant into developing the garlic bulb rather than the scape and flower. The scape tastes like a garlicy green bean or garlicy chive and can be used in many creative ways in recipes, and so try this fun new veggie this summer.

• Chop and sautee them into eggs or stir fry.
• Grill them and use them to top a piece of steak or chicken.
• Grind them in a food processor along with olive oil, basil, and pine nuts for fresh pesto.
• Chop them and freeze them.  They are a quick way to have a beautiful garlic flavor when you don’t have garlic in the house.  I rely on this method in the summer when I am out of my 5 Sisters garlic and the new crop isn’t ready to use yet.

For more recipes and pictures, see our previous blog about scapes.   We are not selling the garlic scapes on our website this year, but if you would like some and see one of the sisters regularly for a hand-off, send us a message. We generally harvest the garlic about 4 weeks after we remove the scapes, so follow us here for more recipes, farm activity, and family harvest.