Green Garlic vs. Scapes | Endless Simmer

OK, Maids— consider this one paying you back formy missed Feed Us Back post(I never knew FuB had fans!)

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the newgreen garlic product that I discovered at the Food Fete. ReaderKathleen Donovanposted this comment:

Isn’t the green part of the garlic called a scape? I’ve tried pickled scapes at a Garlic Festival and they’re delicious.

I have so far ignored Kathleen’s comment because, well, I was stumped. Had the green garlic guys duped me into writing about a not-so-new product? We have, after all, coveredscapeshere on ES before.

A search around the Interwebs didn’t exactly clear things up, with many writersreferring to green garlic and garlic scapes as the same thing. Clearly they’re similar, but my long, straight green garlic with the little blubs attached just don’t look the same as those winding, loopy scapes. Melissa Clark had a long piece in NYT aboutboth green garlic and garlic scapes, but didn’t quite explain the difference.

Finally I found thiscomment from Serious Eats user bodaciousgirlthat offers the best explanation I’ve seen yet:

Green garlic and scape are not the same. Scape is the shoot that grows up through the soil from the garlic bulb. When it is pliable and loops around a couple times, it is pinched off the bulb to send more“energy” to the bulb to make it grow larger.

Green garlic is garlic that is harvested after the“scape” has straightened and looks like your typical scallion.

OK then, so green garlic and garlic scapes are the same part of the plant— just harvested at different times. As Melissa Clark notes, farmers have long cut the scapes off their garlic while it’s still growing, because getting rid of the scapes somehow makes the bulb grow larger. Most farmers simply discarded the scapes, but then in the last few years found out they could take them to the far mar and sell them to all us foodies desperate for new discoveries.

For green garlic, however, farmers let the scapes grow long and then harvest the whole plant, giving us the tiny bulbs along with the straightened scape.Bodacious girlclaims the scapes are tastier, although I find they both have a pretty similar, less-bitey-than-raw-garlic flavor. Plus with the green garlic, you get the little bulb and shoots to play with too.

More on using green garlic in cooking to come…

(Photos: Sara /Island Vittles)

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