What are they?

The garlic scape is the flower bud of the garlic plant that grows only on hardneck varieties of garlic. We harvest the scapes once they have a nice curl to them. We do this to encourage the plants to focus their energy into producing nice big garlic heads underground for us to harvest in a few weeks. 

How to prepare

Garlic scapes are delicious and fresh with a mild garlic flavor. They can be consumed raw or cooked. Below are two of our favorite ways to prepare them. We also encourage folks to just use them like they would a regular garlic clove in any recipe. The whole scape is edible, however some prefer not to use the top due texture preferences. 

Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe

• 10-12 garlic scapes

• 1 cup of fresh herbs (I like to use a combination of basil and parsley, but feel free to get creative with whatever fresh herbs you have on hand). 

• Zest and juice of half a lemon

• ⅓ cup of olive oil

• ¼ cup of parmesan (or nutritional yeast)

• ¼ cup of pine nuts (or walnuts, sunflower seeds, or cashews, again whatever is available in the pantry)

• ¼ tsp salt

• pepper to taste

Place all the ingredients in a food processor or blender, and blend until smooth. Serve with pasta dishes, as a bread spread, or dip.

Garlic Scape Salad Dressing Recipe

• 2-3 garlic scapes (finely chopped)

• Juice of half a lemon

• ¼ cup of olive oil

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Optional: 1 tablespoon of honey

Finely chop garlic (and any other fresh herbs you have around). Add to a small bowl with all other ingredients. Whisk ingredients to mix thoroughly. Serve over any salad.