Saturday, July 06, 2013

The last month of growing garlic. A 'how to'.

                          Last years garlic after cleaning.


This applies to hardneck garlic planted in the fall. Garlic scapes are the curlicues that form at the top of your garlic plant, with a seed pod at the top. Once the scapes have made a double loop, they get cut off the plant. Cut the seed pod off and compost. Take the scapes and cut them up and either cook, freeze or make pesto of them. I vote for pesto. {My super duper Garlic Scape Pesto Recipe follows} At this point stop watering your garlic. When half of the leaves on the plant are dead and brown, it is time to dig up one or two garlics to check them. They should have a nice wrapper and be a nice size. If you leave them too long the cloves start to split apart and they won't keep. So keep in mind, HALF of the leaves should be brown. If they look ready, dig them up!! Hang them in bunches to dry in a cool shady place. 

Garlic Scape Pesto (Delicious)

Ingredients:
1 cup of garlic scapes, top flowery part removed, cut into  1/4 inch slices
1/3 cup of walnuts or pinenuts.
3/4 cup of olive oil 
1/2 cup grated parmigiano cheese 
1/2 teaspoon of salt 
black pepper to taste 

Preparation:
Place scapes and walnuts in the bowl of a food processor and whiz until well combined and somewhat smooth. Slowly drizzle in oil and process until integrated. With a rubber spatula, scoop pesto out of bowl and into a mixing bowl. Add parmigiano to taste; add salt and pepper. Makes about 6 ounces of pesto. Keeps for up to one week in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. For 1/2 pound short pasta such as penne, add about 2 tablespoons of pesto to cooked pasta and stir until pasta is well coated.

I freeze my pesto in an ice-cube tray to keep for winter. 

3 comments:

The Desert Echo said...

Sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing!

Staci@LifeAtCobbleHillFarm said...

I just started appreciating garlic scapes last year. They are delicious! This was my first year in planting garlic. Fingers crossed the extreme rain we've had hasn't rotted the bulbs.

Erin said...

I really hope your garlic doesn't rot. That would be awful.