The What The Use A Garlic Scape

The Great Garlic Scape Doesn’t Stay Long!

Garlic is usually planted during autumn for spring garlic and the longer summer harvests. In between, there’s something special that happens. There are outgrowths from the bulbs that give us the taste of garlic in a different way. It’s called garlic scape.

The color is determined green and it makes the garlic field look like a sea of verdant lush. The scapes as they called are delicious when cooked alone, usually sautéed. They are the stems of garlic bulbs which are cut ahead of the hardening heads in order for the garlic to mature faster and develop into bigger bulbs. Scapes will compete with the bulbs in using the nutrients from the soil. So removing the scapes will be good for the bulbs.

Some folks find it easier to uproot the scapes and prevent them from growing again. Scapes will turn brown and harder if you leave them alone until harvest time. But it will be a waste since scapes are themselves nutritious and in great demand as gourmet food ingredients. They only come once in a year and their presence is anticipated by many garlic lovers as well.

Removing the scapes is better when they are still coiling. When they start to form into a letter U, that will the best time to cut or uproot them. They are more tender and delicious at this stage; this is according to some veterans in garlic production. You can slice them into smaller sizes and use them as ingredients in your favorite dishes. You can use scapes as garlic substitutes. They may lack some of the sting of garlic but they can make it up by adding volume and aroma.

You can add them to sautéed dishes where they are better used. They can give a nice appearance to the dishes and lend an aroma better than garlic’s, which is displeasing to some people. The scape is also used as stuffing for roasted chicken and other roasted fowl.

You can eat it as a salad. Because they are fibrous, they are hard to bite and even harder to chew, some will boil them first in order to make them tender. Add some vinegar and soy sauce and mash some garlic cloves and add them to the salad. Slice some onion bulbs and include them as one of the ingredients. Green chili peppers will complete the cast and you have now an appetizer to your roasted fowl or barbecue. A bottle of beer will help digest your scape salad.

A garlic scape has very high nutritional value. According to some research, it has high calcium contents which are good for the development of bones and teeth and it has enough vitamin C to help ward off coughs and colds.

There are many things that we can do with the scapes. They are additional blessing from Mother Nature and we must not waste them even if they are so abundant. There’s a purpose why they are there and it’s more than just being a stalk. They are food for the hungry mouths.