Blog: Flower stems bonus crop from hardneck bulbs
If you’ve never grown garlic before, there’s a bonus crop from the garlic scapes or flower stems of hardneck varieties. A popular delicacy in France, scapes are rarely seen for sale in the UK.
In case you don’t know, hardneck garlic is the type you tend to grow in cooler climates, and it takes longer to mature compared to softneck varieties. Softnecks don’t produce scapes as a rule. If they do, it means the plant is stressed.
Scapes always seem to appear virtually overnight! The thin, hooked, green stalks usually appear in June, and if left on the plant, they’ll open into flowers. When they first appear, they’re straight, then curl as they get older. Whether you’re going to eat them or not, remove them so all the plant’s energy will go into producing bigger bulbs.
The scapes will go down well with those who find garlic too overpowering. The taste is mild, sweet and a little bit nutty, with a much softer garlic flavour. They’re much kinder on the digestive system than garlic bulbs. I’ve just been diagnosed with IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) and one of the big no-nos on low FODMAP diets is garlic. As I have an entire crop of it, you can imagine how I felt!
What to do with garlic scapes
You can eat scapes raw, but I prefer them cooked. Here’s what you can do with them. Here are my other garlic and herb recipes:
- They’re excellent with eggs, either as a frittata or in scrambled eggs.
- Make them into salsa with homegrown tomatoes and chillies.
- Add them to a pesto
- Add to mayonnaise for a green aioli
- Grill them with olive oil, salt, and pepper
- And obviously, use as a mild garlic substitute.
Now you’ve harvested your garlic flower stems, when will the actual bulbs be ready? Well, when the lower two or three leaves turn yellow, they are ready to harvest. The other leaves will have yellow or brown tips. Don’t leave them in the ground after this point, as the bulbs will lose protective layers and won’t store as well.
For more on drying and storing garlic and any problems you might encounter, see my garlic growing guide. Try DT Brown’s spicy hardneck garlic, Caulk Wight.
