All over the garlic fields, curly, corkscrewing stalks are popping up on our plants. Some grow in arcs, others in double loops, and when they’re snapped, you can smell them from the end of the row. But what exactly are they? Good question! These stalks are called “scapes”, and they’re a part of garlic that most people have never heard of.
Scapes are the stems of the garlic flower, and if left unpicked, they’ll form delicate purple flowers around harvest time. Unfortunately for the grower, producing this flower takes up most of the garlic plant’s energy, so the garlic bulbs stay smaller and less developed. Small garlic? Who wants that? Not us, so we head out to our fields a few times a week to harvest the scapes.
Snapping off the scape reverts the plant’s energy back to the bulb, and we end up with some tasty treats in the process. Scapes are edible, with a strong garlic flavor that works nicely in anything from pesto to omelettes to pickles!
Try some of our favorite recipes here:
Marinated Garlic Scapes and Asparagus
Roasted Garlic Scapes and Asparagus
Sadly, we haven’t been able to find a viable method of shipping to keep scapes fresh during transit, so we will not be offering them for sale this year.
