I grow garlic in my garden. It’s pretty tough and resilient stuff. It really has to be to thrive under my care. In October I buy some local organic garlic from the farmer’s market. I break the bulb up into cloves, and plant each one point up about 1 1/2″ down. The hardy little leaves poke up in very early spring, maybe even late winter. Come July I uproot the plants and I have garlic of my own.
But that’s not really my point. A quick Google will net you far better resources for growing garlic than I can provide.
Garlic scapes from my garden
My point today is about gardening and local eating, and the hidden treasures you can find. In mid-June the garlic plants shoot out the long curly ‘scapes’. They are the beginnings of garlic flowers, and if you leave them they will bloom and produce seeds. But you shouldn’t leave them. For one thing you want the plant to put its energy into making a nice healthy garlic bulb, not a pretty flower. For another thing garlic scapes are delicious. Sort of like garlicky green onions.
They also make excellent bracelets
I saw garlic scapes at the farmer’s market last year, but I was intimidated. Occasionally I will buy something exotic and it usually just languishes in my fridge until it reaches the point that I no longer have to feel guilty about composting it. Purple potatoes, sunchokes and beet greens have all met this fate. But this year I decided things would be different. I would harvest my own in an effort to improve my garlic yield.
The flower parts, which you don’t eat
I decided I needed to get over my fear of strange foods and do something with my garlic scapes. After all, I grew them my very own self, and they couldn’t be any fresher. I did some searching online and settled on a recipe for garlic scape pesto. I did some substituting, using hazelnuts instead of the suggested walnuts, and added a splash of lemon juice. It was very, very good. I ate it on tortilla chips and pasta and straight from the spoon. Garlicky heaven.
Spaghetti with garlic scape pesto
The thing about garlic scapes is that they are truly seasonal fare. I harvested all my scapes – they’re gone. I might be able to find some at the farmer’s market for the next week or so, but then that’s it. No more garlic scapes until next June. It’s a different way to eat, savouring each item while it lasts because it will soon be gone. I think I kind of like it. It makes me appreciate food in a much different way.
So if you’re wondering why my breath smells the way it does, now you know. I am living on garlic scape pesto. 
The Tri-Cities Vampire’s Union is requesting that you stop growing garlic.
Oooo they sound good.
I LOVE garlic. I could cook a whole bulb when I make chicken breasts.. and I could probably eat a roasted bulb with crackers.
Mmm.. I can’t wait to have a garden. Garlic scapes.
Wow that pasta looks so good – must go hunt the farmers markets this weekend!
That looks yummy!
We grow beets here and I cook the beet greens just like spinach. My husband eats them with a little bit of vinegar?
I can’t wait for the food to start coming out of the garden. You are ahead of us by a couple of weeks I think.
Pretty cool post. I just found your site and wanted to say
that I have really liked reading your blog posts. In any case
I’ll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you post again soon!
Garlic is a great add on to any recipe. What a great choice of product to grow.
love the bracelet.
I have the mad love for garlic scapes. I’ll be haunting the farmer’s market this weekend for sure! Apparently they freeze well, too, so perhaps the season isn’t as short as you thought..?
Cool. I totally thought they were green onions. I learn a lot from you here!
I love anything garlicky and I’ve never heard of scapes before. Definitely going to look into this and plant some!
The pasta photo looks delicious!
I also like garlic. Your food look yummy.
Have you read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver? One of the main ideas is that if we eat food when it’s in season, we’ll grow to appreciate it more… what a lovely thought. Your pasta sounds delicious, I know you’ll have many times over the coming year when you will dream of it again, and next June, you will wait with anticipation for your garlic scapes to grow again. -e
I was glad I had read this post because I don’t think I would have otherwise known what those things were in our food basket. I made the pesto and froze it. The next week we got more and I roaster them with two tomatoes and some chickpeas. It was very yummy on bread.