We’ve been experimenting with growing our own garlic. Last year – we harvested about 15 heads – and since I love cooking with garlic – they didn’t last long. My hubby re-planted some of the cloves – they should turn into heads this year. Plus some of the garlic scapes grew into flowering heads – we planted some of those seeds – we’ll grow those for 2 years to get heads.
Freshly harvested scapes
Because we let the scapes grow into flowering heads – the bulbs we got last year were sort of small. So this year we decided to harvest the scapes.
Raw, garlic scapes are like giant chives. Very strong flavor – and they made me tear up a bit when I cut them. So I googled some recipes.
A lot of people just steam them, and put on butter & salt – this was pretty tasty.
However some recipes for them are awesome – sauteed with brown sugar & tomatoes is brilliant!
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2005-10-01/Garlic-Scapes.aspx?page=2
a) steamed and sauteed, b) pesto, c) sliced & stored in a bottle in the freezer, d) sauteed with brown sugar
http://cc-calendula.blogspot.com/2007/06/garlic-scape-pesto.html
I made pesto that was fantastic – we mixed it with cooked shrimp & fettucine for an absolutely delicious dinner.
http://lunchinabox.net/2008/02/03/freeze-green-onions-in-plastic-drink-bottles/
I froze some slices for possible use at a later date.
In all, I wish we had a bigger garlic garden – as I would certainly enjoy doing more with scapes!
hotyogamama 