Monday, June 27, 2011

Garlic scapes

I've never grown garlic before but my friend Hugh grows tons of it, enough that he can sell quite a bit to the local organic produce market, and still eat garlic every day, that's alot of garlic. He was very kind to give me some garlic last year, I planted the cloves in the fall....and it grew into nice large plants...if the size of the plant is any indication of the size of garlic then I should have some really large heads of garlic.



The garlic scape, if left alone, will turn into the flower, which I don't want. I want all the energy to go to the garlic, not to the flower, so I cut the scape, which is also edible.






I grilled it on the barbeque, not the best option, it was a little tough, next time it will be much better if I steam it or stir fry it, but it still tasted very good. With the garlic scapes, I grilled some zucchini and eggplant. I chopped the scapes, quarted some tomatoes, drizzled the whole thing with oilive oil and balsamic, sprinkled it with feta and with that a salad was made...delicious!












5 comments:

Powell River Books said...

YUM! I'm sure going to miss tomatoes this year. I'll have to go the farmer's market and get some. I assume the scapes are just the flower heads and you leave the leaves. I planted garlic for the first time this year too. It was coming up quite nicely the last time I was up at the cabin. Maybe I'll be there in time to cut some scapes for a treat. - Margy

Powell River Books said...

p.s. When do you dig up the garlic? After the plants die back? - Margy

Anonymous said...

Hi Marg,
When are you going to harvest the garlic? I read you havest when the tips start to go brown and that is what mine are doing now. I cut the scapes a couple of weeks ago but threw them away...
Julie

Anonymous said...

Your salad looks delicious. We planted garlic for the first time this spring.

The Hobbit said...

Wow I guess everyone is planting garlic this year. First year garlic is sometimes small,but like any bulb if you leave it in the ground till next year it will multiply. I pull up every other bulb and air dry as you would potatoes. You can replant in the fall as you would with tulips or any other spring bulb. Wintering the bulb is a big plus when growing garlic. At least that's the way it goes on the East coast. Salad looks marvelous!!!