Garlic scapes a-go-go

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Recently I found myself with an overabundance of garlic scapes.  I never thought I would ever utter those words, because you can never have enough, right?  But I had most of the harvest from my own garlic patch, a pound purchased from Fair Food Farmstand, and a handful from my CSA for two weeks in a row.

So what does one do with that many scapes?  I researched ways to preserve them.

Freezing does not appear to do scapes any favors...at least not if you intend to saute them.  They lose their texture and that’s just no good.  You can slice scapes into small bits and freeze for use in soups and things like that, but I didn’t think I’d use them that way.

Scapes can be canned.  Well, sort of.  Apparently, pickling scapes is super easy and produces a nice, crunchy, slightly garlicky pickle.  I seriously love almost any pickled vegetable, so I opted to test drive a jarful.  It’s pretty easy - cut scapes into smaller lengths and put a shallow layer of scapes into a canning jar.  Sprinkle with salt.  Repeat the scape and salt layering until you have about a 1/2 inch of headspace in the canning jar.  Leave the jar on a kitchen counter for a few days to allow the salt to leach the water out of the scapes, forming its own brine.  You may have to add more salt.  When the brine has formed, process in a water bath for 25 minutes. It’s sort of the same process as making sauerkraut, but without the pressing.

Having started the pickled scapes a few days ago, I gave them a try today - delicious!

I saved a few scapes to have sauted scapes with dinner the other night, but for the rest of them I opted to make scape pesto.  I put the scapes in a food processor with some olive oil.  Right now it’s being stored in my fridge until I can get my hands on some Hendricks parmesan and walnuts.  I haven’t decided if I will freeze or can the pesto.

There is a distinct possibility that I may find myself with more garlic scapes within the next couple of weeks.  Well..bring it on, says I.  I think I’d like to make some garlic scape aioli to have on hand.