Sunday, June 13, 2010

Garlic Scape Harvest Time

This past week we harvested scapes off the 60 garlic plants that sprouted from the cloves I planted in the fall. The scape is the flower stalk and bud of the garlic plant. According to conventional wisdom, breaking off the stalk as soon as it starts to curl will encourage the development of bigger, tastier garlic bulbs. There is some debate on if and when the scapes should be removed. Some say that though the bulbs will be a bit smaller, they will store better if the scape is left on longer. We decided to go for bigger bulbs figuring we will use them quick enough. Another benefit to removing the scapes is they are quite tasty themselves. We roasted some scapes with olive oil, salt and pepper in our solar oven and they were delicious. The taste and texture was kind of like a cross between garlic and string beans.

Photo by Rick Jackofsky

1 comment:

  1. Someone told me I should try to grow garlic. I forgot that you have it growing, We should talk about this.

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