Harvested garlic scapes today

First time growing garlic.. and I planted TONS of it this past fall... I think I have like 7 squares of garlic! LOL. Mostly hardneck (thus the scapes) and some softneck. Several of the scapes were curling gracefully, so I cut them off.

Not sure how to cook them. but guess I can google that. Has anyone cooked garlic scapes?

yummy! http://www.restaurantwidow.com/2007/06/what-to-do-with.html

Some great ideas on that link!

What do garlic scapes look like? Do you have a photo of your harvest to share?

Here's an excellent article on garlic scapes with recipes included.

http://www.maryjanesfarm.com/About/articlesawards/sr-garlic-scapes-6-08.asp

pattipan

Oh my gosh! That is so kewl! Yea scapes!!

No pics.. but the article posted above has a good one. From what I understand, hardneck varieties of garlic produce scapes. Softneck varieties don't.. though they did send up a shoot with a bulb at the end, which I cut off. I believe cutting the scapes/bulb off is supposed to aid in bulb production.(not to mention you can eat them!)

I just harvested my Garlic Scapes today. I have 16 squares of garlic but only 4 squares of hardneck.

Here is what they look like after you pop them off. I put them in water since I'm not using them until later tonight. Although I'm not sure what I'm going to make...
Oh, the tall ones in the back are from my shallots. I wasn't sure if I should pop them off but figured it wouldn't hurt.

Beautiful!

From your shallots?

My shallot haven't even hinted at putting out anything like that. The green tops are only about 6 -10 inches tall.

Dizzy- I put my shallots in last October. The green tops aren't too huge maybe 10-12 inches, maybe. The "flower" was taller than the tops but only a little. They seem to be dividing quite nicely, one bunch has 6 or 7 different shoots off it.

Thanks for the photo! They are quite beautiful! I didn't realize they were so big.

My garlic has leaves but so far I haven't seen anything like this come out of them. Although I planted them at the wrong time last year and had to keep replanting them each time the chipmunks dug them up. The chipmunks didn't eat them so I just stuck them back in but it didn't do the roots any favours, too much disturbance. The one that survived made it through the winter and divided. I split them this spring, so I now have 4 garlic. They have leaves so far.

My scapes have come up and I am unsure of how to "pop them off"...any advice for me?

An article Camprn posted ( http://www.maryjanesfarm.com/About/articlesawards/sr-garlic-scapes-6-08.asp ) said to harvest them while they are still curly and before they start to straighten out and that the white bulb is edible. Are they supposed to look like this before I harvest?


Mine do not have the white bulb yet although I can tell where it will form. They are a beautiful site though let me tell you....nearly makes me well up with tears of happiness just to look at them.

Ok well any help anyone can give me will be much appreciated! I cant wait to taste these beauties!

I harvested mine while they were still curly - I accidentally left a couple to straighten out - but by then I needed to harvest the rest of the bulb. I think that i should have cut off the scape t harvest time bercause the bulb on the scape then tried to open up as the rest of the garlic was drying. Fingers crossed that it didn't take too much out of my garlic.

Congrats on the scapes - wonderfully fresh and delicious! They look great. If you can use them tonight, I would cut them tonight

kiwi! Thanks for the response...that pic isn't of mine though...I was wondering if I should harvest them when they look like that pic?

Mine don't have the white bulb on them yet but I can see where it is going to form...Mine are just starting to curl.....What do you think?

OK - I am far from an expert - this is only the first year that I have grown garlic. However, my early scapes I harvested when you could just see the bulbet (or what ever it is called). Then the last ones the bulbet was very close to bursting into flower. Neither of the actual bulbs that I harvested seemed to be affected either way. I know that some garlic experts say take the scapes early, and some say leave them be - so I think it becomes a matter of preference - but I just love the tender flavor-filled crunch of the scapes and given that they are only available for such a short period of time, I chose to pick early. Patience isn't always my strong point - and I couldn't wait to eat mine.

If you use them, and have several nights that you can cook them, then I would pick just what you need for today, and pick fresh each day till you have used them all up. Personally I wouldnt let the bulbets get too big, only because in my mind, I understand the concept of the plant putting too much of its goodness and energy into the bulbet and taking away from the actual garlic which will be harvested in the weeks to come. This is based on my thought process, not from experience. Newer and older both seem to be just as tasty as each other though... probably not much help?

Iam done with my scapes - and envious of your upcoming treasure

With the rocambole garlics, we cut the scapes while they are still curled--they're more tender at that stage. Someone once told me the steamed scapes are "particularly good served with a hollandaise sauce." My thought was: an old shoe would taste good with hollandaise sauce.

Nonna.PapaVino wrote:snip..... an old shoe would taste good with hollandaise sauce.

+1

Hi everyone!

I had two weeks away on holiday and left my son in charge of the garden. He did a pretty good job of it too.

My garlic has now got scapes and what I want to know is what sort of timescale are we working on here? The scapes are about 6 inches long and are not curled so is that because they need to grow more before I cut them off to eat, or is it because they have grown as much as they will grow and have straightened out already? My son claims he did not even notice that they were their so has no idea what they have done

I dug around one bulb to see how it looks and it is about as big as the ones I get in the shops but the plants seem green enough that I think they must need to carry on growing. Any advice?

Thanks.

Icemaiden, Diferent types of garlic have different types of scapes. If your garlic is Asian Tempest, its scapes do not curl, but go straight up. If it's a Spanish Roja, its scapes will curl in the most delightful way before straightening. Our Asian Tempest has scapes from 6-8" and I'll be cutting them this weekend. Nice thing about scapes is they'll last in refrigerator for a week. Just saw an article in the local newspaper about using scapes on a vegetarian pizza! I've not tried that, but think it'd be good with very young scapes, like yours. Older scapes might need a bit of steaming before being put on the pizza.

" My thought was: an old shoe would taste good with hollandaise sauce.

I used my first set of scapes in a frittata and a few bits where hard (like grass) I did fry them up first, I am wondering do I use the entire end, or is the tip to be cut off?
I saw a man yesterday who grows garlic to sell and I told him that I dug up one of my garlic a few weeks ago and though the plant was large, it had not yet divided into cloves.
Then he asked me if I had had the scapes come up and he said that usually 4 weeks after the scapes the garlic start to yellow etc and are ready then.
SO I think mine are doing to ripen at different times
I went out and picked tons of scapes last week, thought I had them all, but yesterday it was like they had regrown (I realize its just a lot of garlic plants)
They are SOOOOO beautiful.

Thanks for the replies.
I haven't a clue what sort they are - last year I planted some cloves from the supermarket and when the tops started to die off I dug them up and found small round grey bulbs, some plants had one and others had a few. I let them dry out a bit and then replanted them in the autumn and this summer I have much bigger plants with scapes! It remains to be seen if the bulbs have divided or not.
Anyhow, based on what you say here I think I will eat the scapes now and hope that the garlic itself is ready next month. This is so exciting!

Opinions differ, some folks (me included) don't like, and cut off, the long fibrous tip above the bubils on the scape. Others, well, perhaps they need more fiber. Like asparagus, the lower end of a scape is more dense and should be cut off. Usually, my scapes measure about 6 inches with the tip above the bubils removed.

I don't know what to do with garlic plants.
Supermarket garlic planted last fall. Today the tops look pretty dead but still standing. No scapes. One stem has a small bulb thing growing about 6 inches above the soil and I don't know what that means. Here in Ohio I think I was suppose to plant garlic in March or April... Question: At this point what in the world do I do with these things?

Dig 'em. Seriously, if the tops have yellowed and started to dry, get a couple of the bulbs out of the ground and see how they've developed. If well developed, dig the rest. Most supermarket garlic is a softneck variety, so will not send up scapes anyway. When you've pulled some of the garlics, look for: nice rounded bulbs with anywhere from four to many cloves (depends on variety). The sheath holding the cloves together should be intact. If the cloves have started to spread out and split the sheath, they're a bit over-the-hill for storage, but make fine eating. To cure your garlic: lay out in a sheltered, warm place; place garlic on some sort of grate so air can circulate under them. (We use a gazebo table, topped with bottom-up mesh nursery bins which usually hold 4" pots--the garlic is laid out on the mesh. Gazebo table is sheltered from sun but with good air circulation.) Curing takes about ten days, then trim and lay down in cool cellar or garage for storage. If your garlic is a soft-neck, braiding them and hanging the braid is attractive. If hardneck, you've probably eaten the scapes, so trim the necks of the garlics to about 6", and store in baskets.