“What are garlic scapes”? We are asked this question at CSA pickup and at the Market probably more than any other question I can think of. The scape is the part of the garlic plant that is trying to bud. We remove it, because it is delicious, and because when the scape is removed the garlic plant focus its energy into making the garlic bulb bigger rather than putting energy into procreating.

It is one thing to tell you that we pull the scape off the garlic plant, but I thought it would be more interesting and helpful to show you a video harvesting some scapes.

Some people cut the scape off the plant and don’t pull them. If you cut them you miss out on the yummy tender few inches hidden in the stalk. The first scape I pulled I didn’t get much of the tender stalk out, the second one shows how you ideally want to harvest scapes.

We have a recipe on this site for garlic scape pesto. I like garlic scapes grilled so I think I will makes some grilled garlic scape pesto and see if I like it as well as the original/raw version.

Here is the Garlic scape pesto recipe. I just grilled the scapes and followed the recipe.

Grilled scapes taste almost like green beans with a little garlic flavor. They are very mild.

Put all the pesto ingredients in the food processor and give it a whirl.

…and there you go. Grilled garlic pesto. You can thin your pesto or leave it thick like this.

Have a great Father’s Day weekend. I think we will grill some pizza and have the pesto on the pizzas.

Mo