Store scapes in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them. They’ll store for 2-3 weeks
Garlic scapes are a long, skinny, curly green vegetable that is actually a byproduct of growing hardneck garlic. They grow up from the center of the plant and we harvest them in June, about a month ahead of our annual garlic harvest.
Nearly the entire scape is edible and is best when harvested while young and tender. You may need to trim off the skinny end near the little bulb at the far end of the scape as this portion is often tough. The remainder of the scape is usable and tender, so they do not need to be peeled. Scapes have a bright, juicy, mild garlic flavor. They may be used in any recipe that calls for garlic cloves, just chop them up and add them as you would minced garlic. They can also be grilled or roasted, pickled, fermented, and make an awesome pesto! They are a great addition to eggs, stir-fries, pizzas, etc.
Cultural & Historical Background: Up until the early 90’s we used to remove scapes from the garlic plant and throw them on the ground! We were the first farm in the Midwest to start harvesting the scapes for use as a vegetable, thanks to one of our customers from Korea who asked us to save the garlic scapes for her so she could make pickles. We thought this was odd, but saved some for her anyway. She was gracious enough to share a jar of pickled scapes with us and that was our introduction to how delicious they are to eat!
Growing Information: All of our varieties of garlic are a type called hardneck garlic. This type of garlic produces scapes as part of nature’s plan for the plant to propagate itself in the soil. If left unattended, the bulbil on the end of the scape would get bigger and would eventually be so heavy it would fall down and plant itself, thereby propagating a new plant! We’re cultivating garlic, so we plant a clove of garlic from a full sized bulb and use that as a means of growing the plant. Since we don’t need the scape to produce another crop, we go through the field and cut them off the plant so the plant can focus its energy into producing a nice sized bulb instead of a scape.
