The First Garlic Harvest

-->

The First Garlic Harvest

The garlic scapes started twisting and turning about a week ago. For most northern gardeners, the scapes begin to appear from mid to late June. They are a sign that the underground garlic bulb will be ready to gig in about a month.
The funny looking scapes are on the flower stem of most hardneck garlic varieties. Actually, there are no flowers but a seed pod with tiny garlic bulbs.
The scapes are flavorful and can be used in many dishes, soups, and salads, much the same as one would use a garlic clove. The cut up scapes, however, have a more mild flavor. And like garlic cloves are healthy and nutritious.
Some growers cut the scapes off under the theory that the underground bulb will grow larger while others save the scapes to increase the amount of garlic in the garlic bed. These somewhat tiny garlic bulbs take about two years growth before they become a sizable garlic bulb.
Discover more about garlic, a medicinal and culinary plant which mankind has planted for thousands of years at Scapes.