A wind whipped garlic plant with a curly garlic scape
Garlic Scapes
Garlic scapes are long curly shoots (stems) that form the (unflowered) bud of the garlic plant. We remove the scapes before they flower in order to increase bulb size. We are very fond of their fresh, mild, springtime garlic taste.
You can use garlic scapes as you would garlic: in salad dressings, pickled, roasted, in sauces or soups, but in our opinion the quickest, easiest and tastiest way to use them is to make a garlic scape pesto. You can do so by substituting the garlic in a classic basil pesto recipe with chopped up garlic scapes. Alternatively, Ian Knauer’s cookbook “The Farm” has an interesting and simple pesto recipe using garlic scapes and pistachios, it is available here. One important thing to note when using garlic scapes is that the bud itself, which is the pale yellow bud on the “shoot”, is stringy and therefore is not recommended for use.
Member Recipes
For your culinary interest, in the last few weeks Local Food Box members have sent us the following recipes: Greens and Garlic Scapes, Fennel Potato Soup, Warm Potato and Fennel Salad with Parsley Sauce and a Tuscan Kale and Chestnut Soup.
Egg Cartons
A final note for our customers receiving eggs: If you are able to return you egg cartons we can bring them back to our egg producers and they will happily reuse them.
Close-up of the garlic bud
No comments yet.