Thursday, June 23, 2011

Garlic Scapes

      Towards the end of June here in Southern new England, your garlic plants will send up a tall stem that curls around like a pig's tail and ends with a long slender flower bud.
       You want to remove these scapes, as they are called, so that the plant puts its energy into the bulb, not the flower. Since last year's garlic is probably used up or dried out by now, you will welcome the addition of the garlic scape to your early summer cuisine.
      I like to chop the scapes into bite size pieces and use them as I would use chopped garlic.  For instance, saute them with chopped onion as a beginning to a stir fry or soup.
      Also they can be chopped into slightly longer pieces and steamed like green beans, and eaten as a vegetable side dish themselves, or in a medley with turnips or other seasonal vegetables.
A medley of cauliflower, snugar snaps and scapes on the steamer.

1 comment:

Bryony said...

Hi Jane - I thought of you recently while visiting my daughter in Ann Arbor MI. We went to the farmers market there and I talked with Diana Dyer from the Dyer Family Farm. I bought dried garlic scapes from her - have yet to try them. They grow over 40 kinds of garlic. You may be familiar with her blogs
www.365daysofkale.com
www.dianadyer.com
Hope to see you soon.Love your blog.