Does your garlic look like this? Like it’s decided to shed its trustworthy girl-next-door image in favour of something a little more loose and blowzy?
Don’t worry: it’s cool. Just means it’s garlic scape time. If you planted a hardneck variety of garlic last fall, you’ll see a looping central stalk emerging right about now. Those stalks are called scapes, and they’re delicious steamed, stir-fried, or—my personal favourite—made into a pesto.
Instead of letting the scapes form a bulbil, lop them off just above the topmost leaf: not only can you eat them, but losing the scape forces the plant’s energy into producing a bigger bulb.
Ta-da! A garlic scape harvest (and all from a container on my balcony). There are about 10 scapes here: the perfect number for whizzing in the food processor with a little olive oil, Parmesan, and nuts (I use pine nuts or walnuts). Toss over warm new potatoes, or stir into pasta. Perfect.
Want to try your hand at growing garlic? Check out my article on successful garlic planting and growing.
Calloways Cornelius Nursery says
Good to know about your blog and thank you such a wonderful post, And so true. Yet again, you got to the right words perfectly.
Thank you for sharing with us.
Jasmine says
Hi Andrea,
Sure it’s garlic scape time, I just write about it today, but in french. Miam! I’m sure your pesto must be tasteful with the pine nuts!
Thank you very for making gardening so fun and good through your articles and books!
A Bit of Brooklyn says
Scape pesto! I never even thought of that. We usually make them into a white bean dip I read about in the NYtimes. Thanks for this idea– I’ve been following your blog forever, and bought your book when it came out. Thanks for everything!
Melissa Evenson @floraseasons says
Thanks for the west coast perspective on gardening. My garden resides in the FL panhandle so it’s fun to see what others are doing in other parts of the country. I am a new follower to your blog, but enjoy all the pics you post and the fun things you do. I’ve nominated you for the Very Inspiring Blog Award. Check out my post at http://www.floraseasons.com.
whole garden wendi says
Great little tip there, I’ve never heard of using the scapes like this. Can’t wait to try it thanks for sharing!
janel raelyn says
Thanks for the information! I will try to plant some of this soon…