After coming home from the Canada festivities in my home town, I headed over to the CSA farm to pick up this week's share. This week, my bag was stuffed with two absolutely huge heads of lettuce (curly red and freckled), a big bunch of chard, another big bunch of beet greens with tiny beets attached, and then these curly things in the picture that I've never seen before. They smell sort of garlicky and oniony. They are not hollow like I would expect an onion or chive to be. And the curliness is really throwing me off. Does anyone have any idea what they might be? I nibbled on one and it tastes oniony and garlicky too, so my guess is a garlic chive, but it doesn't look like any chive I've ever seen!
I made my favorite buttery nutmeg greens again with the chard and some of the beet tops - I just can't get enough of that dish! And I find that greens are really filling too - after eating them I don't get hungry for hours.
After cutting the little beets off the end of the beet greens I wondered what to do with them. I like the taste of cloves with beets, so I ended up just frying the baby beets, tails and all, in a little margarine and some clove powder. It was fantastic! The tails got nice and crunchy and the beets themselves were tender and sweet. And to think I considering putting them in the compost!
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I bought some of these recently because I'd never seen them before and they were so pretty. If I remember correctly they're garlic scapes and I was told to slice them up and saute them alone or with whatever else I was cooking. I've yet to do it though.
You beet story reminded me of a friend who put carrot greens in a soup. I was completely skeptical but the soup was delicious as your beets sound.
Hi Theresa,
I just discovered scapes this year from my visits to the farmer's market. They're delicious. I love their mild garlic flavour. Another fellow Ottawa blogger recently posted about them here.
(I like to stick a bunch of them in a vase for fun centre pieces on my kitchen table until I'm ready to use them.)
More on scapes
Enjoy!
Thanks Kale and Amber! I contacted the farmers too, who also said these were garlic scapes, the seed stalk of the garlic plant. The farmers gave me the same cooking advice as you did Kale - I will definitely get some good use out of these.
I've been getting those garlic scapes too - they are awesome. I've been treating them the same way as a green onion - in salads and such.
"What am I looking at here?" I asked myself upon seeing your photo, Theresa.
Today, like many other days, I have learned something new.
Cheers,
gord h.
it seems like EVERYONE is discovering garlic scapes this season, even the ny times -- they did a huge spread on them. i've been eating them raw, they arent as potent as a whole clove of garlic, and you can eat the whole thing! i've also thrown them in a blender with basil and parm to make my own pesto!!
Hi Emily - they did taste pretty good when I nibbled the end of one! I haven't done anything major with them yet - I'm waiting 'til I have an evening where I actually have time to cook! It's turning out to be a busy, busy summer.
Hippie G - dang, I read your comment too late to add some to my salad today - I'll have to try that in tomorrow's salad.
Gord - it is good to learn a new thing, that's for sure. I have been finding out all sorts of interesting stuff about food this summer.
This harveat seems a bit strange from a downunder/otherside of the world point of view.
I plant garlic on the autumn equinox and it grows throughout winter into spring and is harvested close as possible to the summer solstice.At this stage its mostly dried off.
It rarely send up flower spikes, maybe the odd one in a season, around mid spring.
I do eat the ones that the harvest misses and that sprout and grow. Ttey are delicious raw in a salad, in scrambled eggs or just about anything else but we eat the whole thing not just the tops.
Maybe we have different garlic in South Australia or our growing season ripens differently or maybe these are a special type of garlic.
Hi Deb - we do eat the actual heads of garlic that form too, but those get harvested later in the year and then dried/cured for storage and use over the winter. This is the first time I'd heard of eating anything other than the actual garlic cloves, so I'm not surprised it sounds strange!
I, too, learned about garlic scapes at the farmer's market (is there no end to the benefits of shopping there?) but I didnt' have the courage to try them. Thanks to your readers' suggestions I just might!
RA - do try them! They were delicious in fettuccine alfredo sauce and also in my veggie stir fry!
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