Eating garlic scapes
When
we first grew hard-necked garlic, I read that the scapes are a spring delicacy.
However, the ones I tried were woody and sharply pungent, so I just
composted the scapes I removed in later years. (If you don't
pluck off the scapes, your garlic plants will put energy into growing
scapes instead of into bulb production, resulting in a smaller harvest,
so don't just ignore them.)
This year, I learned the
error of my ways in avoiding such a delicious food. As I started
cutting off scapes Tuesday morning, I got lazy and pulled on one
instead of snipping it
. A long, tender scape
base came loose from deep inside the plant. Just like the grass
leaf bases you get the same way, this central core of the scape was
sweet and gentle on the tongue. So that's
what people were glowing over!
A few taste tests proved
that color is a clear indication of the border between sweet and tender
(white) and spicy and tough (green) portions of the scape. On the
youngest scapes, I cut off and discarded the green tips starting at the
bulbous portion, but on older scapes, I cut where the white began to
show a lot of green. Depending on your palate, you might want to 
include more or less of the
green portion in your meal.
Since our garden also
served up the first head of spring broccoli on Tuesday, I broiled the
broccoli and scape bases together, resulting in a delicious lunch
treat. Next year, I'm going to keep a closer eye on the scapes so
I can harvest them all at their peak!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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So you pull them out from between the leaves? When I try it it seems I might uproot the garlic first.
But, the tough-seeming green part, when sliced lengthways and sauteed, gets a mouthfeel like not overdone (but not too tough) asparagas, and a delightful nutty taste with mild garlic. Yum!
I kept my scapes on and only cut them a few weeks before harvest. My goal is to get garlic that will keep 9 or 10 months and also plant the bulbis' for propagation. It really worked last year and I am going on year two of the experiment. The theory behind it came from Growing Great Garlic and personal observation. If the garlic goes through a typical growing cycle, it will not put too much energy into bulb size--at the expense of bulb wrappers and dormancy hormones-not sure if that is correct term:) Jon
Joey --- For some reason, our soft-neck garlic are doing something strangely scapelike this year too, but whatever it is doesn't come out easily and is between the leaves not out the top. I can't remember which kind of garlic I gave you, but that could be what's going on at your place --- in that case, I'd leave it alone.
But I think I gave you hard-neck garlic (the really big heads?) In that case, just pull the scapes out carefully. Maybe hold a hand around the base of the plant as if you were teasing a burr out of Leo's hair so you don't uproot it?
(I think you have a higher tolerance for garlic than me, but maybe I'll try your cooking suggestions for the green part.
)
Jon --- Fascinating! I've actually been very impressed by how long our hardneck garlic has lasted. I do grow both hardneck and softneck and eat the hardneck first, but it still seems to last until well after Christmas. (Our softneck lasts until the new garlic comes in the next year.) Have you tried a side by side comparison, one batch where you cut the scapes early and one where you leave them on?