Backyard Garlic

Scapes are the round, beautifully curled, flower stems of hardneck garlic. Scapes grow quickly! Springing up in just a few weeks and maturing in just a few days. Scapes are milder than garlic cloves and a bit sweeter, too, with a texture similar to asparagus or a fresh green bean. Sans bean. The flower bud is edible and adds a slightly different flavor to the scape salt. If the flower bud is left to mature, it will produce a cluster of miniature garlic cloves called bulbils. Bulbils are edible, but I couldn't wait! Fun fact: bulbils are genetic clones of the garlic plant.

Garlic scape harvest has begun, and irises are in bloom!
Looking for an easy way to remember seasonal garden timing? Try making associations.
Association is a powerful gardening tool - and can be fun too.
Garlic bulbs and blueberries often peak at the same time.
Do you have any garden pairings?

Backyard Garlic's paper mâchè bulb has a new display frame. Made by friends of friends years and years ago and gifted to founder Margaret the bulb now hangs beside our cotton t-shirts at vending events. A couple times every year someone approaches the vending table to share stories about how the big bulb made an appearance at school parties and garlic harvesting gatherings in and around the NH seacoast. Happy Margaret let me keep it when she retired.