After months of growth my garlic plants finally have scapes that are ready for harvesting. Scapes are the “shoots” that garlic plants send up to flower as the bulb is still developing. Because the bulb is not yet fully formed you are supposed to cut off the scapes so that plant can refocus its energy on the bulb. The scapes themselves are packed with garlicky flavor and can be used in all sorts of recipes. I’ll be posting more scape concoctions as the week goes on but for now I’d like to share this delicious recipe for Scape Pesto.
Oh, and before I post the recipe I have to brag about the rest of today’s garden harvest. In addition to the scapes I also picked a handful of beautiful green beans, a large bunch of basil leaves, and three (yes, three!) strawberries. 🙂
Garlic Scape Pesto (serves 2)
You will need…
2 Garlic Scapes
15-20 Large Basil Leaves
3-4 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
Salt and Pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor and chop until well blended. Taste the pesto and add olive oil, salt, pepper, or Parmesan as needed to reach your desired flavor.
What can you do with your fresh Scape Pesto?
- Serve it with Caprese Salad – that’s what we did!
- Serve it over pasta
- Enjoy it with a loaf of crusty rustic bread
- Add it to a homemade pizza
The Little GSP 
YUM Annie! Fresh pesto is one of my favorites! I have never tried growing garlic. I think I may add that and asparagus to the batch next year!
Thanks Megan! Garlic is really very easy to grow. You plant individual cloves in the ground in October and then just watch the plants grow in the spring. This is our first year growing garlic so I’m excited to see how the actual bulbs turn out. 🙂
Fixing the scapes with sausage and pasta is a GREAT idea. Why didn’t I think of that? Hopefully there will be some more at the farmer’s market this weekend. Either that or I’ll have to start harvesting my own garlic so I can have scapes whenever I want!
This is my first time. I ordered the cloves from Seed Savers, planted as directed, and the only ones that didn’t make it were the ones that ended up blocked from sunlight by The Tomato Plant That Wouldn’t Die (and Kept Growing).So .I don’t know how the actual garlic will be, but I will plant more next year assuming they come out even halfway tasty. Definitely easier than other things I’ve tried (for example, all my winter squash either died or what fruit did start growing got all black & shriveled.)
Thanks for your comment, Edgar! I just found it hidden in my spam folder so sorry for the delayed response on my part. Good luck with your garlic this year!
Thanks for teaching me about scapes; I sometimes have used onion scapes, but didn’t know what to call them!
Sure! 🙂 This was my first encounter with garlic scapes and it’s been a good experience so far. We’re going to use them again in a green bean – flank steak stir fry tonight.
I just harvested my first armload of garlic scape bracelets today and sent them off to market. On Friday, when we harvest for the weekend markets, there will be more – then I will take one home and try cooking with it. Just tasting a bit of its green made me realize that we are truly missing out when we shop in grocery stores only. In midlife, I have taken an internship on an organic farm in Northeast Ohio. It is a wonderful, if tiring, way to spend the days. I look forward to reading more of your blog.
Thank you for your comment, Abigail! It’s been stuck in my spam folder for a while so sorry for my slow response.
A whole armload of garlic scapes, wow! I think that if my 8-9 garlic plants turn out well this year I will have to plant a lot more of them this Fall!
This looks heavenly! Thank you for sharing the recipe. We missed the window to get our garlic in the ground last fall, but were lucky to find some at our favorite farmer’s market a couple weeks back. I think they’re done now, but if I find any more I’m totally making this. I think the once a year timing only adds to the allure. yum, yum!!
Thanks for teaching me about garlic “scapes”.