garden | garlic scapes delight

the delight of the scape... I was introduced to garlic scapes last summer. At first I was horrified at this twisting arrow-like thing that suddenly appeared on my garlic. Had my garlic bolted? But a little research later, I learned that in order to help focus the plants energy into forming a quality bulb, I had to lop off that funky shoot that I now knew was really called a scape. With that begin my quick fall into love with this culinary treat.

Last year we took the scapes and quickly sauteed them with some crushed red pepper flakes and extra virgin olive oil. The memory of how incredibly good these little garlic bean-like shoots were was beyond words. I planted three times the amount of garlic this year primarily for scapes alone. As soon as you snip them from the plant, the aroma of garlic quickly fills the surrounding air wafting promises of tastebud delights to come. I could hardly wait to eat them this week, so I stayed the course and sauteed them up the same exact way as last year. They definitely did not disappoint. Sadly what did disappoint was how quickly they are now gone. Until next June...