Now here's one for you!
The Spanish go mad for Ajetes which are garlic shoots pulled from the centre of the new bulb in spring.
Ajetes in scrambled egg is the best tapas in theses parts!
Here's the question, my local bar owner says it doesn't harm the bulb if you let the flower shoot go, the shoot pulls off easily, Mmmmmmmm :-\ what's your verdict? As much as I love ajetes I'm not sure If I want to take the risk!
Dunno???
:-[
The shoots may be evident in Spring in Spain but here they take longer, generally July time. They are called scapes and should be removed to stop the garlic bolting. Most people, oddly, throw them away. I chop mine up and use them in salads or, like the spanish, in omelettes or scrambled egg. The Garlic Company charge £3-£4/kilo for scapes.
Interfering with nature for a quick fix?
It's a hardneck thing, apparently. But I thought most Spanish garlic was softneck?
Grew garlic for the first time last year. I cut the scapes off leaving a few inches behind rather than pulling them out, having read this led to larger bulbs. The bulbs seemed quite happy afterwards.
this is an extract from a garlic experiment .....
"There were no significant statistical differences in garlic yield between the plants with scapes removed and the plants with scapes left on. There was a trend however for the garlic plants with the scapes removed to have a larger bulb size. We may not have found a statistically significant difference due to our small sample size."
http://www.specialtycrops.colostate.edu/scp_exp_demo/garlic_2004_spce_flme_scpe.htm (http://www.specialtycrops.colostate.edu/scp_exp_demo/garlic_2004_spce_flme_scpe.htm)