Garlic and Garlic Scape Pesto

Garlic is one of the vegetables we are growing for the first time this year.  We cook with garlic frequently and also like to grow crops that we can share or give as gifts.  Garlic must be planted in the Fall for the biggest heads and highest yield in the following summer and that was also appealing to us.  We moved on to our property in mid-August as the growing season was winding down, but we were itching to get started on creating our homestead and planting some garlic was an easy project to get us started.

Hardneck and Softneck
Garlic varieties are classified as either softneck or hardneck.  Softneck is what is commonly sold in supermarkets and, according to Boundary Garlic Farm in British Columbia, the reason it's the main variety we see at the store is that softneck garlic can be planted mechanically.  Softneck varieties store better and the flexibility of the garlic "neck" allows for braiding.

Hardneck garlic varieties require more precise planting because it will not grow unless the the top of the clove is pointing up.  Compared to softneck varieties, hardneck garlics have larger cloves with more complex flavors, and are easier to peel.  Hardnecks are also the best choice for growing in cold climates like the one I live in.

We purchased our organic seed garlic at the Gardeners Supply store, where we had a choice of several heirloom varieties, including some that had soft purple stripes, a pink tinge, or a creamy white skin.  Their flavors were described with terms like "rich," "mild," "spicy," or "hot."   We bought a couple of heads of two different hardneck varieties, Porcelain and Rocombole, and planted the individual cloves in a corner of the garden last October. To help them through the winter, we added a layer of leaf mulch.

It was a long winter with the most prolonged spells of deep cold I can ever recall.  I worried about all our new plantings, including the garlic bulbs under their bed of leaves.  In late Spring, we removed the mulch and were happy to find the green shoots of a dozen garlic plants already sprouting. By early June, they were well ahead of everything else in the garden, even the weeds!

Garlic Scapes

One of the special qualities of hardneck garlic is that it produces a long, edible flower stalk commonly known as a scape.  Scapes are becoming popular in restaurants and with home cooks, along with other early season wild and specialty foods such as ramps and fiddleheads. Scapes are firm and curly; I've seen some that have curled into complete circles but ours simply drooped gracefully.

Younger scapes are more tender and have a milder flavor.  I decided to harvest mine fairly early because we were moving into the warmest temperatures of the season and I wanted to use them raw to make pesto.  I simply snipped them from the stalk at the point where they still felt soft and flexible, much like picking asparagus.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Scapes are a versatile vegetable and the young tender ones can be chopped and added to salads or other dishes.  They are also good steamed, grilled, or sauteed in a little oil.  If they are older or slightly tough, scapes can be peeled and blanched to improve texture.  Garlic scape pesto seems to be the most popular use and I was excited to try making it.  My basil plants are beginning to flower so I was happy to find a recipe on Serious Eats by blogger Crisper Whisperer that suggested using a mixture of basil and garlic scapes. 

The recipe will be familiar to anyone who has made pesto.  If you haven't made pesto, it's very easy, stores well in the fridge, and can even be frozen.  Typically, pesto uses pine nuts but a blight combined with harsh weather in Italy has led to a shortage as well as higher prices over the past few years.  Many cooks are substituting walnuts, almonds, or sunflower seeds and finding them just as satisfactory and more economical.   

My garlic scape pesto came out paler in color than traditional pesto but had a big, garlicky flavor that we loved.  It was so delicious I had to force myself to save some for leftovers!  I used only half of my garlic scapes to make this pesto, and have saved the other half to make a white bean garlic scape dip for a dinner party this weekend.  

Removing the scape not only provides a delicious vegetable, it allows the plant's energy to go into forming a larger garlic bulb for harvest.  Some growers also say that removing the stalk improves its storability.  Scapes that are not removed eventually mature and form an umbel shaped cluster of tiny garlic bulbils.  Bulbils can be used to start new garlic plants but take at least two years to form a bulb large enough for harvest.