The great e-scape

Friday, June 06, 2008

The garlic patch is growing like crazy.  I grew four varieties of garlic this year - Georgian Crystal Purple, German Extra Hardy, Musik, and German Red.  I can barely imagine what is going on under the dirt right now, particularly the German Extra Hardy.  Some of the stalks are super thick, much thicker than any of the garlic I grew last year.

But there were no garlic scapes in sight.  I kept checking, week after week, wondering when I’d see some stalks.  This week has been kind of crazy and I didn’t have a chance to really check the patch out for a few days.  Lo and behold, it’s scape heaven in there! 

I know that some of the local farmer’s markets are just beginning to get garlic scapes into stock, and I’m awfully glad of it.  I’ll get a few dozen scapes from the garden, but that’s never enough.  I’d really like to put at least two servings up to eat in the Winter - I can’t imagine anything better than eating garlic scapes in February!

Even though garlic scapes are becoming better known and more popular, many people still don’t quite understand what they are.  A garlic scape is simply the flower stalk of hardneck garlic varieties.  They sort of have a texture like green beans, but they’re a fantastic garlicky flavor.  There’s all sorts of discussion about when one is supposed to harvest the scape.  Everyone agrees that the answer is “early”, but some say you should cut it before the scape starts to curl.  As you can plainly see, my scapes have already started to curl.  Aside from the good eating, harvesting the scape encourages garlic to put its energy into developing big fat bulbs, rather than growing a flower.  It’s a win-win.

I like eating garlic scapes simply sauteed in olive oil with garlic, but there are other options.  I hear they’re excellent grilled and in stir fries.  I found these interesting recipes for using up those scapes (as if I’d have a problem!):

Garlic scape vichyssoise Garlic scape green curry Garlic scape pesto Garlic scape hummus