Scapes!

I planted garlic for the first time last fall. I have no idea what variety I have; it is whatever hardneck garlic I bought at the Clarendon market last year. I saved some of the cloves and planted them. They grew. And now I have scapes. Seven of them. It should have been six, but an extra clove must have ended up in the ground.


What to do with scapes? I've never had them before, so I asked around. Should I even cut them off? "Yes!" was the resounding answer. Not only are they tasty, but the garlic will bulb better if it isn't trying to flower. Good, that makes me feel better about taking them. As for what to make, responses varied, from adding them to stir-fry to chopping up and putting them on salad. But the most common answer was pesto. I love pesto, but I generally stick with the basil variety. Pesto seemed like the easiest solution, especially since I didn't have anything else to put the scapes on.

So I cut the scapes and brought them inside.


I chopped them to fit in the food processor.


I put in some sliced almonds (note to self: use slivered almonds next time, to avoid the brown almond skins). Recipes I found suggested pine nuts, walnuts, or almonds. Almonds are what I had on hand. I grated some Parmesan and added that. Processed a bit to get everything roughly the same size, then added the olive oil. Once I added the oil I had to keep stopping and scraping the sides so the pesto would continue to mix. With this small amount, my mini-chopper would have been the better implement to use, but I've misplaced the blade.

All finished:


It isn't very much, but it is yummy. I'll stop by the bakery in the morning to buy some rosemary bread, then this will be my post-paddle picnic contribution for tomorrow's Memorial Day gathering. I have some store-bought basil pesto to supplement, since I don't think this will go very far.