No Escaping Scapes

We've been growing garlic for quite a few years now. We break apart the garlic into cloves and bury it closely together about an inch deep in fall.

It's a favorite because it's a winter sleeper - it goes into the ground in October with a nice foot-thick mulch and we forget about it until it's leaves poke up. We always enjoy a little mild spring garlic in April and May when our stored garlic from the previous season's harvest has given it's last gasp.  But we like to wait for most of the crop to mature.

In June (usually right around the solstice) on it's way to maturity, the garlic puts out it's flower.  The lovely "scape" curls around with a hooded flower at it's end. If we left the scape on the plant, it would draw power from the growing garlic. Gardeners just snip off this scape to keep the energy directed to the growing garlic bulb.

But oh those scapes!  They can be refrigerated and then added to foods just like a clove of garlic.   Although we use a few like that, we go crazy for garlic scape pesto. We make it and freeze it for cold winter meals where, combined with pasta and veggies, it brings a warm remembrance of solstice and summer when we looked for it's distinctive curl.

The recipe below was shared by Cate and Mat, our CSA from Ridgeland Harvest*

Garlic Scape and Almond Pesto

• 10 garlic scapes, finely chopped
• 1/2-1/2 c. finely grated parmesan (or to texture/taste)
• 1/3 cup slivered almonds (toasted lightly if you'd like)
• 1/2 c. olive oil
• sea salt

Put about 1/3 of the scapes and almonds in a blender or food processor with some of the olive oil and mix. Continue to add these until these three ingredients are blended. Scoop into a bowl and add the sea salt and cheese.

If you don't use it immediately, press a piece of plastic against the surface to keep it from oxidizing. It can be stored for a couple of days or frozen for a couple of months (though we've been known to discover a tasty frozen chunk the next spring!)

*This year we got the sad news that their garlic crop hadn't made it.  Difficulty in obtaining the winter mulch and an over-wet spring has taken it's toll. We know how much their garlic harvest means to the farm's livelihood.  So we thank them for their efforts when the weather brings drought one year and too-frequent and too-heavy rains the next.