Garlic Scape Harvest Time

Garlic Scapes 2014  - photo by Rick Jackofsky

For me, the first day of summer is the day I start snapping the scapes off my ophio garlic plants. So, today is, (unofficially), the first day of summer! Garlic scapes are a delicious bonus you get from hard neck garlic plants. Scapes taste, (and can be cooked like), garlic flavored string beans, we like to roast them. They store really well too, we've sometimes kept them in the vegetable crisper of our fridge for months. Here on Long Island the scapes, of garlic planted in November, are usually ready to eat in mid June. You can start snapping them off when they begin to curl around. You should be able to snap them off cleanly with your fingers. Don't let them go to long or they will get too woody. I'll be digging up, and starting to cure, my 120 garlic bulbs in about a month; right before our two big summer music festivals, The Great South Bay Music Festival and Bethlehem Musikfest.