Twirly Whirly Garlic Scapes - Garden Art

I remember once making a salad with a friend when I lived in Banff and she was surprised that I only used the white part of a green onion because her family only used the green tops. I now use the whole thing but find it interesting what we consider edible and not edible. Other nutritious and edible plant parts we often overlook are beet greens, pea shoots, pumpkin seeds, turnip greens and my all time favourite garlic scapes.

Garlic is planted in the fall before the snow flies, in the spring it is one of the first things to appear from the soil. While the garlic bulb forms underground the plant grows long, tall greens as well as a flower. In order to divert the plants energy back into forming the bulb we (farmers) snap off the flower before it blooms. The flower pre-bloom is called a SCAPE. They are crisp, twirly green bits that are edible.
When I was a farming intern, we snapped off so many scapes one day that my hands smelled like garlic for a week. Scapes have a milder more delicate garlic flavour and they can be integrated into any dish just like a garlic clove.

Last night I had two friends for dinner. We ate outside in the garden and I made them harvest part of the dinner by snapping off my garlic scapes.
I then chopped the scapes into 1 inch pieces and sauteed them in organic butter. Nothing like the aroma and taste of garlic and butter. Yum.
Once they were tender I put them in a small food processor and turned them into sauce. We poured this over our sweet potatoes, it was delish.
Garlic scapes will be available at all the farmers markets in the coming weeks, so pick some up and give em a try.
Click here to see more picks of these twirly whirly pieces of garden art.