'You hardly have to do anything with it and it produces delicious garlic bulbs that can last an entire year'

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What an incredible summer we’ve been having! The veggie garden is loving the hot temps and sunshine.

When I left for vacation in mid-July all the plants were little babies. I was happily surprised to see how lush everything was when I came back.

“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow.” — Unknown

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My most recent addition to the veggie garden is garlic. This is my second season growing garlic and I don’t know why it took me this long — it’s super easy. You hardly have to do anything with it and it produces delicious garlic bulbs that can last an entire year. Well, depending on how much you plant, eat and how you store them.

This column isn’t about growing garlic, it’s about harvesting and eating the garlic scapes.

Do you know about garlic scapes?

I knew nothing about them until I was reading an article about how to grow garlic. I’m so thankful for that, as I would be missing out on such a delicious offering from the garlic bulb — an offering that only happens once in its growing process.

Garlic scapes are stems that shoot directly out of the hardneck garlic bulb in the ground.

What do they taste like? Well, I would describe them as having delicious light garlic and onion flavour.

As for the texture, I would liken it to asparagus. Actually, it’s quite comparable, even when prepping them for cooking. You know, when the bottom of the stems are hard and tough to chew? I tend to cut those pieces off and discard them.

Garlic scapes grow at this time of year and are ready to harvest when you see them growing higher than the leaves and curling up. You don’t have to harvest the garlic scapes but it’s best you do, as they can drain all the energy from the garlic bulb.

You don’t want that. Plus, why wouldn’t you — they’re so tasty!

“There’s enough garlic in here to kill every vampire in Europe.” — Gordon Ramsey

If you’re a first-time grower like I was last year, here’s how to harvest them. It’s easy. Take your scissors or garden shears and cut the scapes at the very bottom of the stalk, just before the leaves.

Garlic scapes are so versatile. You can literally use them in anything you would typically use garlic in. That means they’re good in soups, stews, roasted and sautéed.

Heck, if you don’t have the time to do anything with them right away, chop them up and put them in a freezer-safe bag or container and freeze them until you’re ready.

Alternatively, you can dehydrate them in the oven. So many options to choose from.

To go a little deeper and spark some foodie ideas, you can turn them into a garlic scape pesto, garlic scape hummus, pickled garlic scapes, potato and garlic scape soup, garlic scape toasts, garlic scape stir-fry and garlic scape risotto.

I’m going to try out a new recipe — garlic scape fries, which was inspired from a recipe on veggiekinsblog.com. I like the sound of this recipe as you feel like you’re cheating by sitting down and eating an entire plate of French fries.

No sir! All veggie goodness, with the help of some flavorful ingredients to enhance the fries.

Cut about six to eight garlic scapes in the length of French fries. Set them aside. Then, in a bowl, combine about a half to three quarters of a cup of breadcrumbs, half a teaspoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Next, coat your garlic scapes in tahini sauce (if you don’t have that, use olive oil). Then, coat them in the breadcrumb mixture and place them on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and bake at 375 for about 15 minutes or until they’re golden brown.

You can eat them as is or with your favourite dipping sauce. Either way, garlic scape fries are most definitely fit to eat.

Erin Sulley is a self-confessed foodie who lives in Mount Pearl. Email: [email protected] Instagram: @erinsulley

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