EO Gourmet Garlic

It’s wonderful going to the grocery store and seeing your garlic for sale.

It's been a great week in the garlic field. We saw our first scape on Sunday and now they are popping up everywhere. I plan to start picking this weekend. I know many of you have plans to go out of town, but if you happen to be sticking around and would like to pick some, please let me know and we will make it happen. I also am happy to pick some to share with you.

So many people have reached out with an interest in scapes and also great questions about what exactly scapes are. I hope this post helps explain things a bit more.
Scapes are the thin, vibrant green stalks that grow from the garlic bulb. They are long and curly and kind of look like a cross between chives and scallions. They can be eaten raw, or cooked up and added to a variety of dishes. You can also sauté stir fry garlic scapes as you would green beans, They are best served very thinly sliced as a garnish or pureed for use in pesto, sauces or soups. One of the most popular things to do with scapes is to make scape powder and use it as a seasoning. It tastes like a unique blend of onions, scallions and garlic.

Garlic is one of the few plants with two harvests each year. Garlic scapes are harvested in the late spring and then the bulbs are harvested just a few short weeks later. It is important to remove the scapes because by cutting off the scape you are asking the plant to send all of its energy into the bulb which increases the bulb size.
The photos below show our Elephant Garlic scapes from last year and on the right is the Purple Stripe garlic.