Whatever is a garlic scape?

One of the side benefits that comes with growing garlic are the yummy scapes they produce!

But do you even know what a scape is?

Just about the time garlic is ready to start “bulbing out” in late spring, these curious curlycues erupt from the center of HARD neck garlic plants. These are the flower heads (it actually rarely flowers, but instead makes little “bulblets”).

Snapping off these scapes prevents the plants from putting energy into flower heads instead of bulbs, and helps increase our harvest which will come about 1 month later!

I like to think of scapes as “garlic flavored asparagus”.

How to prepare:

• The pointy end tends to be tough, so if you want to make sure to avoid something rather chewy, cut off the very tip, above the enlarged place in the stem.

• Cut to desired length—you can leave them whole or cut them up like green beans.

• Stir fry in a small amount of water or oil (if using water, add oil when scapes have reached desired tenderness)

• Add to vegetable stir fry made with vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, kohlrabi, onion…

Here are some other garlic scape recipes to try:

• Garlic Scape Pesto

• Grilled Garlic Scapes

• Garlic Scape Hummus