How are you using your garlic scapes?

[AndySmith]

We had them pickled from our local farm stand last summer and they were delicious! This year we’ll buy garlic scapes from the same farm stand and Wendi told us she’ll give us the pickle recipe.

[IL847]

Andrew，please share the pickled garlic scapes receip

[AndySmith]

I’d be happy to.

[SMC_zone6]

A lot of garlic scapes to use.

[IL847]

what happens to the white part，which is much tender ？

[SMC_zone6]

I cut mine from where the highest leaf is, so don’t get the white part. Do you pull yours out?

[IL847]

yes，I have a tool to pull all the way down to the point where it can be break easy to determine the tenderness

[Richard]

Oh man, I’m drooling!

[ChrisL]

I have done the same in the past, the bulb did not seem to form a hard central core (also didn’t seem to cure as well) on plants which I was able to pull the scape totally out. Have you experienced the same?

[clarkinks]

Scapes are good but I prefer eating the garlic seed themselves over the scapes at least 50% of the time. We peel them individually and sautéed them with other summer veggies such as yellow squash or zucchini. Egyptian walking onion seed bulbs are also good if you have the patience to Pick and peel them and then shish kabob them on the grill brushed with olive oil or butter. I also plant garlic seed patches and cross my wild garlic my grandfather grew with other tame garlic. I grow the seeds of both and rarely but sometimes get a new type. Every type I’ve grown so far was good but unstable and by the third generation separated into the parent types again which means the wild garlic genes are dominant. Wild garlic is much better tasting than tame garlic so I’m looking for a cross with larger bulbs but richer flavor. Elephant garlic is not true garlic in the sense the scapes are different being more onion like and nothing like music or German white garlic scapes that form bulbous seeds.

[IL847]

I didn’t grow enough garlic or long enough to notice what you have experienced the cure issue, but my garlic all have hard cord, just shorter . Or I may also does not know what the proper cured garlic should look like. My understanding, cure garlic is for storing the garlic bulbs longer, my garlic can last till spring so not sure it’s long or short. But, without central cord, I would guess it should be easier to dry , or make no difference to dry the garlic. What do you think the possibility reason to prevent the garlic from proper curing without central cord?

[IL847]

Thanks for share the usage of garlic seeds. You are talking about the seeds that on top of the scapes, right? I harvested two types of garlic seeds last year.One shapes like little bulb, one shapes like wheat grain, which is way smaller than the bulb. I planted some garlic seeds this spring, boy, they grew like weed. To my surprise, the garlic plants that grew from seeds also produced garlic scapes. I thought the garlic seeds form single bulb the first year, then form regular garlic the second, and produces garlic scrape. Did I misunderstood something or it’s normal for garlic seeds to produce scapes the first year in ground?

[clarkinks]

Typically garlic seeds take 2-3 years to form full cloves. First year seeds turn to a clove and second year clove turns into a full sized bulb. The seeds I use are the size of a pencil eraser and I peel them and eat them just like normal garlic. They are excellent to plant if your trying to save money but want to plant a large batch of garlic.

[IL847]

Does garlic seed produce scape before it forms cloves/full bulb?

[clarkinks]

Here are some different types of garlic in one of my grow out aka grown over beds lol. These are being grown for seed crosses.

[IL847]

I planned 3~4 type of garlic. I have this type of garlic seeds too，but other type of garlic seeds I have is narrower ，shape like wheat grain. Size is a bit smaller than wheat grain. Both grow like weeds.
This type of seeds I planted in April this year and have scapes now. this is where I am puzzled… I thought first year from garlic seeds should not grow bulb with separate cloves

[danzeb]

yes，I have a tool to pull all the way down to the point where it can be break easy to determine the tenderness

Do you have name or picture of tool?

[IL847]

I really don’t know what’s called. I bought it in China from alibaba.

[IL847]

This is what it looks like:

[AndySmith]

@IL847 Annie, you had asked for the pickled garlic scape recipe, finally got it and did some up today -
1/2 # Scapes - pack in pints
Bring to a boil: 3/4 C Cider Vinegar
3/4 C Water
1 Tbs Pickling/Canning Salt
Fill Jars with brine
Tap out air bubbles
Lid and process in water bath for 10 Min
Let sit at least a week

They’re very simple but very tasty, good in other dishes too. We processed 2 bushel today and ended up with 18 pints and 7 quarts.