If you have planted garlic for its bulbs and neglect to remove the scapes, the plant is directing its energy to producing flowers rather than bigger bulbs. You can still harvest the bulbs but they will be small and low in flavor. In some regions, garlic can stay in the ground and produce a second year harvest.
If you don't want garlic oil, you can freeze whole individual cloves—peeled or not—in airtight containers or freezer bags. Once garlic freezes, peels come off easily, but think ahead to your typical meal prep. If you're usually short on time, it might be worth the effort to peel cloves before freezing.
Bulbils are tiny, undivided bulbs produced in the scape of hardneck garlic. The scape looks like a garlic flower; however, the reproductive parts are for show only, there is no cross pollination. So the answer is yes, you can easily grow garlic from bulbils. There is an advantage to planting garlic bulbils over cloves.
Garlic Scapes: How to use them!
- Chop into pieces and sauteé in butter or oil for about 5 - 6 minutes and serve like a green bean or add to salads and stir fries.
- Roast or BBQ the scapes whole and serve like garlicky asparagus with an ailoli dip or just some balsamic and olive oil.
- Make a garlicky pesto using scapes in place of basil.
Growers producing relatively small amounts of garlic often cure it by hanging it in small bundles. With this method, there is no need to trim the leaves or the stalk unless you wish to do so for the sake of neatness. In proper conditions, the foliage and bulb should cure fully while intact.
The seed pods are often called scapes. Typically, it is recommended that you cut the scape off where it meets the bulk of the plant so that the plant's growing energies can be focused on the bulb. Scapes, incidentally, are often used as an early-season substitute for garlic in the form of greens.
To grow garlic greens indoors: Plant three or four cloves in a pot filled with potting soil. Sit them on a sunny window ledge and water them lightly. The garlic greens will grow in just 7 to 10 days and can be snipped.
Do not wash them off or get the bulbs wet. Leave the stalks and roots on the bulbs while they dry. Allow the bulbs to cure for three to four weeks in either a well-ventilated room or a dry, shady spot outside. Sunlight can change the flavor of fresh garlic.
Plant cloves in mid-autumn in a sunny location with rich, well-drained soil. Set cloves root side down 4-6" apart in rows 1-1/2 to 2' apart, and cover with 1-2" of fine soil. In the North, put down 6" of mulch for winter protection. Garlic may begin growth late in fall or early in spring.
The stalk is thicker than the leaves and is called the garlic scape. The scape, if left on the plant, will form a flower and then seed (you can eat those tiny seeds! Plus, scapes are delicious and can be used just like garlic, but they are ready a month or two before the garlic bulb.
Garlic scapes are a good source of Vitamins A and C as well as fiber. They boast many of the nutritional benefits of garlic cloves, including being high in antioxidants, which, as part of a healthy diet, decrease inflammation in the body and are protective against things like arthritis, heart disease, and cancer.
Substitute for Garlic scapes
If you don't have garlic scapes you can substitute: Half the amount of minced garlic. So for example; if your recipe calls for 1 tablespoon minced garlic scapes, use about 1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic instead. OR - Substitute equal amounts of green garlic.The sprouts will also grow if the garlic or onion isn't stored properly. For garlic, you'll notice if you slice a clove lengthwise, the pale green sprout has grown smack-dab in the center. The good news is the sprouts are safe to eat. They do have a tendency to taste a bit bitter, however.
Main Dishes
- White Bean Rosemary Soup with Roasted Garlic Croutons.
- Tuscan White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup.
- Mussels in White Wine, Parsley, and Garlic.
- Baked Eggs with Creamy Polenta, Spinach, and Garlic.
- Cauliflower Soup with Toasted Garlic.
- Garlic and Thyme Quinoa Patties.
- Pan-Roasted Chicken with Lemon-Garlic Green Beans.
Sprouted garlic won't make you sick. Unfortunately, those sprouts are incredibly bitter and will impart their off-flavor to whatever you're cooking. If the sprouts are very small — let's call it a quarter-inch or less — you can lop them off at the tip, slice the clove lengthwise and pull out the shoot in the middle.
Steps
- Purchase a head of fresh garlic at a local grocery store.
- Preheat the oven.
- Peel off the outer layer of the garlic shell.
- Trim the heads of the garlic cloves.
- Place the garlic cut-side up in a muffin pan.
- Drizzle 2 teaspoons (9.9 mL) of olive oil over the garlic.
- Wrap the garlic heads in foil.
- Bake for 35 minutes.
Start by leaving a few scapes on garlic plants in the spring. They'll mature into garlic seed by the late summer, and be ready for harvest once they dry and the plant begins to die back. The garlic bulb at the base of the plant will still be usable and fully formed, but likely much smaller than the other bulbs nearby.
Garlic scapes began to become an in ingredient four or five years ago, and in some places sell for as much as $15/pound. So, if you're paying two bucks for a six ounce packet you're ahead of the game. That would only be four dollars for the modern 12-ounce "pound."
Garlic Buds, Cloves One and the Same. A bulb consists of about a dozen compactly arranged cloves or buds. Each individual clove is covered with a fairly tough skin then all the cloves are covered with an outer skin or sheath.
