Garlic Scapes

It’s that time of year again and the garlic scapes need to be harvested, pickled, jarred, blanched and frozen for later consumption.  Over the weekend, we trimmed about 9lbs of garlic scapes from their shooting green stocks.  It’s an easy job and with several pairs of scissors working in cooperation it takes a matter of minutes to snip and bag.  It’s best to harvest the scapes before they flower.  This way the focus will shift away from them going to seed and send all of those good nutrients shooting down to the garlic bulbs.  This should help the bulbs develope into even bigger heads with nice plump cloves.

We did one small batch of pickled scapes  because they are a must for a little friend of ours (a now three-year old toddler in love with their “spicy” taste).

After we completed pickling the garlic scapes we decided to freeze the remaining 4lbs for dishes such as stir fries, beef burritos, veggie wraps, and/or soup.  The list of ways to use these garlicy onion like greens is endless and I’m sure our readers can comment on a few of their favorite ways to use them in the meals they create.

BLANCHING GARLIC SCAPES:

1. Trim off each end of the scapes using a pair of sharp scissors, remove any damaged pieces and wash thoroughly.
2. In a large glass or stainless steel bowl add water and ice cubes (this will be used to abruptly stop the cooking process of the scapes).
3. In a large stainless steel pot bring water to a boil.
4. Add garlic scapes and return to a boil.
5. Boil for 1 minute, remove the blanched garlic scapes and plunge into ice-cold water.
6. Remove from the water and dry the garlic scapes well using a clean towel.  This will prevent ice in the sealed frozen packets.
7. Place useable size portions of garlic scapes in freezer bags or use your food saver to seal.
8. Place in freezer.

Put up Total for Pickled Garlic Scapes

• 8 x 500mL wide mouth mason jars