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http://www.durgan.org/URL/?DETBT 14 June 2011 Garlic scapes

The garlic scapes were removed today. Some scapes were steam cooked and eaten similar to cooking asparagus. There is a school of thought that the under ground cloves are slightly larger when the scape, flower pod stem, is removed. The small test last year indicated no difference in size that was discernible.

If the garlic flower is allowed to mature it produces bulblets, which are clones of the underground cloves. These bulblets may be planted successively for three years to produce normal cloves. It is a convenient method of getting sufficient seed stock. Garlic does not produce new varieties, since the flowers are sterile and all production is simply clones.

I read about these for the first time a few days ago!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Foo ... capes.aspx

It has never occurred to me to cook the tops - mine aren't ready yet but I'm keen to have a go.

Bit confused here - my garlic doesn't flower, surely that's the last thing you want? Onions and leeks are ruined by going to seed so I'd imagine garlic would do the same. Mind you I've never seen garlic look green like that before, mine's browning by about March and quite how much garlic do you eat Durgan?

Scapes are only formed on some hardneck varieties

Millymollymandy wrote:Bit confused here - my garlic doesn't flower, surely that's the last thing you want? Onions and leeks are ruined by going to seed so I'd imagine garlic would do the same. Mind you I've never seen garlic look green like that before, mine's browning by about March and quite how much garlic do you eat Durgan?

I keep a few bulbs on the counter top and eat two or three a week. Usually I cook them by frying or steaming to keep down the body odour. All my friends are not garlic eaters.

So how do you know if it's a hardneck variety?

The bulbs I buy just give a name not a type (or not that I've noticed!)

Most garlic in Britain tends not to be hardneck, but the only real way is to check the variety and whether it forms scapes.

Mine don't even give a name - they were originally from the supermarket and I keep planting their babies. Works for me! (but in France you can only get sets for onions and garlic in the spring, not the autumn )

Millymollymandy wrote:Mine don't even give a name - they were originally from the supermarket and I keep planting their babies. Works for me! (but in France you can only get sets for onions and garlic in the spring, not the autumn )

I use my own garlic for replanting. During the Summer when visiting Farmer's Markets, the garlic is checked and studied. If there is exceptional quality and size, some bulbs are purchased for planting in October. Seldom is better garlic seen superior to my own. Almost all the local garlic is hardneck, but the Supermarket only has softneck, mostly from China.

The last three years, I have been experimenting with the bulblets (bulbils). This will be the second year for the bulblets. The plants are almost the same size as the large cloves plants. It is too early to determine the clove size exactly, since there is still a month to go before harvest.

Green Aura wrote:So how do you know if it's a hardneck variety?

The bulbs I buy just give a name not a type (or not that I've noticed!)

Hardneck bulbs have a very stiff center piece about half an inch in diameter, which is the remnants of the dried scape. The cloves are clustered around this scape and attached to the baseplate as is the scape. Almost all Supermarket garlic in my experience is softneck.

That's interesting, thanks, that explains why they are not affected by the flower head. Leeks get that hard bit all the way through but obviously that affects the bit we eat of the leeks and the same problem with onions.

I never get through a whole bulb of garlic so don't know if they have hard bits in the middle - tend to just use the big cloves from the outside. The bought garlic in France is total rubbish, apart from this time of year when if you are lucky you can find fresh raw garlic, it is always green and sprouting in the middle, small and dried out and - yup, just total rubbish.

http://www.durgan.org/URL/?YFNSN 16 June 2011 Garlic from 2010

Pictures are of hard neck garlic from the July 2010 harvest. The bulb is at the end of its storage life, since growth has started. The cloves are still reasonably firm, probably indicating that curing or drying was adequate.. The pictures indicate the scape or hard neck around which the cloves are clustered.

Thanks for those photos Durgan. I need to go and dissect one of mine - I've never even thought about/noticed this before!