scapes

[ACE]

I have been growing stuff since I was about 5 or 6, never ever heard of these before. Are they a new faddy 'super food' or were they always eaten. I will try some tomorrow and see if I like them.

[ACE]

[Obelixx]

They've been around forever ACE but have only recently become "foody" and in demand in smarter restaurants.   I expect many garlic growers whose garlic is producing precocious buds just remove them and bin them but they make a very good pesto and, I am told, are lovely coated with a bit of olive oil and salt and then grilled.   I shall be checking my garlic crop regularly to see if I get any.

[Paulh]

This evening I picked some leaves from the (now bolting) last of last year's chard, the tops of the broad beans (with a few blackfly) and some garlic scapes; all went in the stir fry (apart from those of the blackfly that were rinsed off).

You can treat scapes like French beans but we find them a bit insipid but also  little too garlicky for a vegetable side dish.

[Jeannine]

They are sold here at a very expensive price I might add. I use mine.

Oh and by the way, not all garlic produce them, I forget which family of garlic don't but I am sure someone will come along with a better memory than mine

[Vetivert]

The rule is softneck garlic don't produce them, hence the soft neck. But apparently my softneck garlic don't care for rules, and have bolted this year.

[Deb P]

I think it's hilarious, garlic bolts, let's cut the flower heads off, call them something else and charge a premium for them!

[ACE]

Well that's nothing to write home about. They should carry a warning that the lack of taste is not coronavirus his time.

[djbrenton]

Might I just point you to a thread from 14 years ago? <breathes on nails and polishes them>

The stalks are called scapes and are a product of hardneck garlic. If you don't remove them they will reduce the vigour of the plant. They are, on the plus side, a relatively expensive luxury with many recipes for their use.

[Jeannine]

I would have to challenge that..sorry.

I did a garlic comparison about 9 years ago with over 25 varieties of garlic,about 20 cloves of each variety was used,and they were all varieties that made scapes. They were  planted in  two identical long beds to test for scapes It was a test for scapes as  they were fetching such a lot of money, it was of interest to our community garden.

We removed all the scapes from 1 bed, and left the other bed to make them naturally .

At harvest the varieties were carefully marked as to what they were , which bed they were in etc, There was no diffeence between the bed that was allowed to scape and the bed that wasn't.

As an added note, we then had a tasting day to evaluate differnt flavours. Quite a differnce between the various varieties. Including in the test was my own garlic which I have grown for many years, in three countries, it was quite amazing how it differed when compared to the one it originally was.

There was no differnce bewteen the ones that had their scapes removed and the ones that didn't.

I still have my notes with complete details in if anyone wants more info.

By the way, some garlic only coils once otheres do a double..remove scaoes before the flower opens if you want to sell them

[Vetivert]

That's really interesting Jeannine. Did you find any difference in the keeping qualities between the two groups?

[Jeannine]

Hi, I am sorry but I can't answer that question as after harvest and the tasting , the garlic was shared out with other community garden folks for donations towards cost. I only kept my own one, it is by the way a German Red Rocombole and has 2 curls on the scape .I have left a couple later if I wanted bulbils to refresh my stash,bu only now and again as they have to be lifted annually, in my case they are a decent size after 2 years by 3 they are good, some other varieties I know take longer as the size of the bulbils are much smaller. I havn't done that for a good few years though as I don't need as much as I used to now.It just keeps going.Here in my part of Canada  I plant in October usually, then harvest in July. After curing for about 2-3 weeks I choose which cloves I am keeping for the next planting and keep those seperate and the rest go into paper bags put in mesh bags which hang in an outside shed. I bring it all in before the winter and often freeze it. At this point I usually share my excess with friends.I seperate the cloves I am keeping and freeze some in their jackets, when defrosted they just squeeze out quite soft. I also freeze some peeled , I have them in a canning jar in the freezer and take one or two as needed, they slice beautifully when frozen this way. I keep a couple of bulbs in the bottom of the fridge in case I need to use any fresh.  It works for me and I have never known any rot. I do examine them carefully and pickle any that look dodgy after curing, I don't try to keep them.

Hope this helps.

I should add that in the earlier info I gave I said remove scapes befor the flowers open, that is actually wrong. I didn't notice till I came to answer this. It is not a flower as such, it is  a collection of tiny garlic bulbs.(bulbils) I should have said, remove the scape before what looks like a flower opens.