Canning and Freezing Episode 1 : Garlic Scapes
6/11/10: Freezing Garlic Scapes
It is harvest time here and you know what that means. . . Lots of canning and freezing! The first item up is garlic scapes. For those who are scratching their heads right now, a garlic scape is a shoot from the garlic plant that grows from the base of the plant around the beginning of June. This shoot, which starts out straight and then turns into a lovely tendril, can blossom and will cause the plant to go to seed. That is why it is important to have it removed before it flowers. And instead of throwing away the scapes, we have found a delicious culinary alternative.
Even though a scape, in no way, looks like a garlic clove, it smells like garlic and tastes like it as well! Prepare it as you would scallions and use it in any recipe that calls for garlic. Take a look at this great blog post for more inspiration.
How to freeze garlic scapes: I froze garlic scapes last year simply by cutting them into 1" pieces and placing them in a freezer bag. Simple. We enjoyed them through the summer, winter, and spring and they were good as if we used fresh. Since I was happy with last year's results, I repeated the same method this year.
Harvest Details: So my family planted three rows of garlic, each being 500 feet long. We were able to harvest about 2 1/2 five-gallon buckets of scapes.
Freezing Details: I froze 9 quarts of garlic scapes.
It is harvest time here and you know what that means. . . Lots of canning and freezing! The first item up is garlic scapes. For those who are scratching their heads right now, a garlic scape is a shoot from the garlic plant that grows from the base of the plant around the beginning of June. This shoot, which starts out straight and then turns into a lovely tendril, can blossom and will cause the plant to go to seed. That is why it is important to have it removed before it flowers. And instead of throwing away the scapes, we have found a delicious culinary alternative.
Even though a scape, in no way, looks like a garlic clove, it smells like garlic and tastes like it as well! Prepare it as you would scallions and use it in any recipe that calls for garlic. Take a look at this great blog post for more inspiration.
How to freeze garlic scapes: I froze garlic scapes last year simply by cutting them into 1" pieces and placing them in a freezer bag. Simple. We enjoyed them through the summer, winter, and spring and they were good as if we used fresh. Since I was happy with last year's results, I repeated the same method this year.
Harvest Details: So my family planted three rows of garlic, each being 500 feet long. We were able to harvest about 2 1/2 five-gallon buckets of scapes.
Freezing Details: I froze 9 quarts of garlic scapes.
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