Garlic Scapes
Garlic scapes are a beautiful and yummy benefit to growing your own garlic (you can also find them at farm shops or farmers markets). If a recipe calls for garlic or a scallion, you could easily replace with a garlic scape π. You’re gonna love these edible rings of goodness.
My top favorite uses for garlic scapes include:
- Pesto, simply substitute your basil or add to compliment the basil
- Scape butter, simply blend together with some salt, pepper and olive oil
- Grilling, similar to how you’d handle asparagus
- Pickling
- You can also chop into a salad, stir fry or pasta
So you’re wondering how to harvest, once your garlic begins to form a curl in the center of the stalk, trim the curl. You don’t want that bulb flowering and the sooner you cut your scape once that curl starts, the better off your garlic will be in the long run because the flower sucks most of the life out of the garlic plant.


You’ll want to clean the scapes once you bring them into your kitchen and remove the fibrous ends. You can hold onto those fibrous ends to flavor a sauce, soup or stew.
Once you have cleaned your scapes, cut as you desire since the scape is completely edible. I personally prefer the top section with the bulb for pesto.

After making that pesto, I’m feeling inspired since I have some cute little tomatoes. Possibly, meatless Monday for us with garlic scape pesto pasta and blistered tomatoes, yum π

I hope this post has inspired you, as much as me π, cheers!