Scapes!
 

I love it when the scapes come in and I get that fresh hint of what is yet to come!

Excellent! I'm harvesting a bunch after work today...

Looking good!

I'm about a week or two away from a fresh batch of scape pesto.

I added my freshly cut scapes to the collard greens I cooked last night in my Instant Pot (pressure cooker). I think that's the only way I want to cook them now, they were sooo good.

I whipped up some scape pesto, using cashews. I love the stuff, until I get sick of it. Takes about 2 weeks of steady, daily eating. Then I make more and freeze it.

Thanks for the pesto idea. I should be getting scapes soon. I should be getting a good
amount and always need freezer ideas.

[QUOTE=ako1974;646009]I whipped up some scape pesto, using cashews. I love the stuff, until I get sick of it. Takes about 2 weeks of steady, daily eating. Then I make more and freeze it.[/QUOTE]



I just wait until I've harvested all my scapes, then spend a day turning them all into pesto and freezing it in 1 cup batches. Thankfully scapes will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of months.

I need to make better use of my scapes. Chopping and freezing didn't give me a winter long vegetable... maybe I should blanch. :?!?: I just love them in stir fries so much. :love: Finer diced a great pizza topping too.
Well I'm not sure when to expect them this year. We are having such a late spring but the garlic was the first thing up and growing as soon as snow came off the beds.:?!?: It would be awesome to get a batch of scapes in mid August as my bro is getting married and I know his bride ( a chef) would LOVE to have scapes to play with on the big day. :)
In fact I think I have a good chance of it, because an extra bed of Spanish Roja which scapes later... either one or the other! That would be great! :D
Needless to say our garlic is way later than you guys - I have harvested garlic in September one late year! So scapes in august is not out of the question...

Bower, have you ever tried replacing the tomato sauce on a pizza with a smear of scape pesto? Talk about heavenly!!

I admit I haven't tried scape pesto yet. Shortage of nuts! :lol::bummer: But I have done pizza with a garlic/oil/rosemary/parmesan and chopped nuts instead of tomato. :love: That was some years ago though, in the days before soooo many tomatoes. ;)
The scapes are very mild to me... in a stir fry, they make a great substitute for green beans (which are waaay harder to grow here). But in general we do lean toward strong garlic flavors in our food, lots of it. :yes: So I imagine scape pesto would be mild by comparison to what we usually go for. :?!?:
I can't believe I'm at the point of looking for substitutes for tomatoes. :cry: (Yes I still have a few bags of em in the freezer) :?:

I find my scapes have a ton of heat to them. Maybe different varieties???

I will top my dough with the pesto, then add dollops of ricotta to knock the heat down a bit.

And now I'm craving pizza...

Yes, could be varieties? Or perhaps it is climate? :?!?: I noticed that my two porcelains had a different scape taste - the Music had more of an oniony aftertaste while the Argentina were garlicky and definitely hotter.
Truth is I often cook them briefly, as in stir fry or mixed vegs, so perhaps I need to experiment more with the raw. :yes:

This is my first year growing garlic.. I'm looking forward to trying scapes. Do I just cut a few of them or should I harvest all the scapes?

When do you harvest the scapes? Last year was my first and I obviously waited too long for many of them because they were woody and got thrown away. I read somewhere that they are best very early, when they are only about 4-6" long and well before they start to curl. But it seems most photos are of the larger curling scapes. I have my first 2 or 3 curling now and a couple in that 4-6" range, but most have not come up yet, so now is the time to find out. :)

Harvest the scape off every plant. I harvest just as they start to curl. We roast them in the oven as a once a year extra special treat!!!!

Best time to harvest scapes is after they curl, but before they start straightening out. I snap off mine as like asparagus stalks, they will easily snap at the point where the tender part and any woody part meet.

As for whether it's best to harvest them all or leave them depends. Some say the heads will be bigger if you remove them. Others say it doesn't matter. I think it depends on whether you want to use the scapes. If you harvest them, you get a tasty treat. If you don't, they end up in the compost bin.

This year I'm leaving one scape on each of my three varieties to harvest bulbils. I also just read something that said when the earliest scapes stand up again, it's time to stop watering. Tonight I went out and tied a yellow piece of string around the three scapes I'm going to leave on.

I pick my scapes when they are between 12 and 18 inches long. At this stage they are still in curl and quite tender.

My scapes arrived early this year, probably due to the warm winter. Some were nearly ready for snapping when we left for vacation on June 21st, a good week or two early. My neighbor harvested about 400 while we were away, and I picked the remainder yesterday when we returned. The refrigerator is full!

The plants are vigorous with many having stems 1.5" wide at the base. Hoping for some giant bulbs from my Music, Russian Red, and Estonian Red.

Tom

Our scapes are just starting to show, up here you have a hard time giving scapes away seems a shame to throw 45000 or more on the burn pile but that is what we do every year.

What a shame, Henry! I would expect a big market for them in BC, at least in the cities where people aren't growing their own.
Then again, they're such good keepers, you'd think there'd be a market for them somewhere, even if you have to ship away.... :?!?:
With 45,000 you could supply supermarkets across Canada I guess! :surprised: At our market price here, $3 for a bundle of 5, that would be a retail value of ?? $27,000. It's a lot to burn. :?:

There are farmers markets that could be sold at 2 plus hour drive away so 4 plus hour gone from a day makes it not worth the effort going rate had been $3.00 a pound Vancouver would be a better market but at 6.5 hours away it is to far.



[QUOTE=bower;646353]What a shame, Henry! I would expect a big market for them in BC, at least in the cities where people aren't growing their own.
Then again, they're such good keepers, you'd think there'd be a market for them somewhere, even if you have to ship away.... :?!?:
With 45,000 you could supply supermarkets across Canada I guess! :surprised: At our market price here, $3 for a bundle of 5, that would be a retail value of ?? $27,000. It's a lot to burn. :?:[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=henry;646347]Our scapes are just starting to show, up here you have a hard time giving scapes away seems a shame to throw 45000 or more on the burn pile but that is what we do every year.[/QUOTE]

:cry:

[URL]http://durgan.org/2017/June%202017/13%20June%202017%20Garlic%20Scapes/HTML/[/URL] 13 June 2017 Garlic Scapes
Garlic scapes are forming on the hard neck garlic. They are the curly snake like tentacles on which the seed called bulbils form. The scapes may be cut off and eaten. There is a view that removing the scapes makes the garlic bulb larger, but I have seen no evidence of this.
Harvest is usually the first week of July in my Zone 5, but I no longer do this. The scapes are left on and the garlic is allowed to grow until the bulbs start to break the covering, then it is harvested. I have found the bulbs get larger if the scapes are not removed and bursting of the bulb covering in no way reduces the storage life. Seeds (bulbils) are harvested when they form at the end of the scapes. Usually one scape produces numerous (100) seeds.
[IMG]http://durgan.org/2017/June%202017/13%20June%202017%20Garlic%20Scapes/HTML/dsc_7606_std.jpg[/IMG]