Garlic Scapes

This weeks garden update is about garlic scapes. Last spring was our first time planting garlic, but after a sub par harvest Kass put some effort into learning more about growing garlic. Turns out in our part of the world, it’s better to plant in fall. So we planted 64 bulbs in November 2023 and they are looking mighty fine right now in May 😎.

Kass also learned about garlic scapes in her research. These are singular curvy, chive like stalks that grow from the bulb and eventually becomes the flower. We observed that they seem to show up after the seventh leaf forms. Apparently these are great to cook with as they have a very nice garlicy/chivey taste. We are particularly interested in make a pesto with them 😋.

They should be harvested once the stalk makes a full curve back onto itself to make a circle to get the best result. Harvest them by cutting all the way to the base. As an added bonus, removing the scapes should increase your garlic bulb yield as the plant will divert resources back down into the bulbs rather than up into the flower.

Our scapes aren’t quite ready yet, we’ve only been able to harvest 1. But we should be able to enjoy a nice garlic scape pesto in the next few weeks 😁