Gourmet Garlic Scapes
The gourmet garlic plants have begun sending up their tall, curly, seed stalks which are commonly referred to as garlic scapes.
While some garlic growers leave the scapes on the plants, I always remove them as they appear during the early summer months.
Remove or Leave Garlic Seed Stalks on the Plants?
One argument for removing the garlic scapes is that it allows the plant to focus on the formation of the bulbs which are growing underground and will ultimately result in larger cloves of delicious home grown garlic.
On the other hand I’ve also seen claims that removing the scapes is simply extra work and has absolutely no impact on the size or quality of the garlic bulbs that will be harvested later in the summer. Some growers even claim that leaving the seed stalks on the plants will somehow improve the keeping quality of the mature garlic bulbs.
Using Garlic Scapes in the Gourmet Kitchen
I haven’t attempted to conduct any type of test to determine which option is more beneficial, but my preference is to remove the garlic scapes shortly after they appear. One bonus if you remove the seed stalks is that they are edible and can be included in your favorite recipes to add a little garlic flavor and nutrition to your meals.
To harvest the young garlic scapes simply grasp and bend them over where they grow out of the plant until they easily snap off.
Garlic lovers may enjoy the scapes raw in salads or pureed into dishes like guacamole or pesto. For the fainter hearted among you the scapes are great and much milder served as a cooked vegetable or used as a seasoning just like garlic cloves.
Scapes can also be included in stir fry’s, soups, pasta dishes, sauces, and your favorite recipes that are enhanced by the flavor of garlic. You can also just toss them in along with other vegetables that you are steaming, boiling, roasting, or even grilling.
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June 9th, 2006 at 7:01 am
Excellent advice on the Garlic! I found (the hard way) that garlic cloves may actually fail to produce if the scapes are not cut back on a regular basis for container grown garlic.
October 8th, 2006 at 10:52 am
Kenneth,
Thanks for everything!
Bob Harden
June 8th, 2007 at 9:39 am
I haven’t experimented to see if cutting the scapes actually affects bulb size. I just like cutting them and cooking with them becasue they are a wonderful way to get an early taste of the garlic before we pull the bulbs. A few more weeks to go on that.
I enjoyed trying my scapes in pesto recently. Delicious!!
June 13th, 2007 at 9:20 am
Take the scapes off!!! All the energy goes into the flowers rather than into the bulbs and you wind up with teensy bulbs if you let them flower!!! Scapes keep well in the fridge and you can share with friends! It’s worth the effort.
July 3rd, 2007 at 9:25 pm
[...] The only other task that I can think of is to remove the garlic scapes from the plants as they appear and begin to uncurl. The scapes are delicious with that familiar garlicky flavor that will enhance your favorite recipes or provide a new twist on pesto. [...]
July 8th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
[...] own home grown garlic bulbs available, unless you’re drying the bulbs or using green garlic and garlic scapes fresh out of the [...]
September 16th, 2007 at 5:54 pm
[...] get, I may dry some and grind it up for fresh garlic powder, we’ll see! Also the garlic scapes are awesome in stir fries or salads. [...]
June 28th, 2008 at 9:34 am
I’ve never seen these on my garlic. I wonder if our more temperate climate and shorter growing season have anything to do with that. What a marvellous bonus crop to have!
June 28th, 2008 at 9:41 am
[...] You can learn about garlic scapes here. [...]
June 28th, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Hi Lin, I believe that you are correct and the absence of the garlic scapes in your garden is due to your climate… I’ve heard that the garlic plants will not produce scapes at certain latitudes.
June 29th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Hi Kenny! I have been looking into this, as I thought I didn’t get scapes because I was too far north. But it seems it must be the variety of garlic that is the factor, not so much the latitude.
I have found a garlic grower in Nairn, Scotland (farther north than Edinburgh, where I am). They are the Really Garlicky Company, Nairn (http://www.reallygarlicky.co.uk/) Click on the “More about the products” button to have all your garlicky questions answered. Including all about scapes. It is the hard-necked garlic that grows scapes, not the usual soft-neck one.
Here is what they say:
“Technically, it is allium sativum ophioscorodon. Unlike the softneck garlic grown commercially, especially in Spain and China, this garlic subspecies produces a hard, woody flower stalk. The flower (topset or umbel) often contains bulbils. Many varieties develop partial or full coils in the stalks (scapes). We have to remove the scape in order to increase the size of the harvested bulbs.”
Seems I’ll need to try a proper hard-neck, instead of planting shop bought spanish bulbs.
June 29th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Hi Lin, I’m so used to growing the hardneck garlic varieties and all of the one’s that I grow produce a stalk and scapes but I should have thought about that… it’s the same reason that you can only use the softneck garlic varieties to braid into garlic wreaths. Good luck with growing some scapes in your garden next season.
July 28th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
I’ve been growing garlic in the Ottawa Ontario area now for about 6 years but I’m still learning. I have a question that I’m hoping someone can answer… but first a little background.
We are a very small producer. We grow about 1800 plants a year. (that’s the number that works best for us for the level of manual effort and the size of our raised bed plots.) We keep about a 1/3 for next year’s seed, eat about 1/3 (or give away to family) and sell about 1/3. The money that we get from the sellings is put back into the garden in soil amendments and straw etc. sort of a win-win on a great hobby. We grow two varieties, Music and Russian Reds (at least that’s what they were called when I bought them at the farmers market years ago) here’s my question:
With the Music, the cloves are huge but often there are only two jumbo cloves per head! I know that the bigger the clove you plant the better, but are the twosies pre-disposed to produce another batch of twosies? Part of me says plant them and I’ll get bigger heads next year, but that means using up more of my limited yeild on seed. On the other hand, they are not as sellable since there’s only two cloves per head. They are wicked roasted since there is little peeling so maybe I should just keep them for our home use…..
If you have any feedback for me I would greatly appreciate it!
Julia
July 28th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Hi Julia, I grow the Music garlic variety every year and have never really noticed bulbs forming with only two cloves. It could be that Music just doesn’t perform well in your growing region… but it sounds like it’s fine for your personal use.