I pickled mine, last year, and then tossed the picked pieces into stir-fries for the rest of the year. I just made up a vinegar brine from my old red checkered cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens "New" Cookbook circa 1980), cut the scapes to fit the jars, and refrigerated. You could also process them in a boiling water bath, if you had many, many jars.

Catherine

No such thing as too many scapes! ;-)

Plastic bag in the fridge - will last a good month. If you can't finish eating them within a month you'll need to see a doctor to get your taste buds calibrated ;-)

TomNJ

Hey, thanks Catherine and Tom! The idea of pickling them sounds very good but I don't have quite that many - maybe 50 twelve inchers. I'll keep them in the fridge and munch for a month.
hortster

Here is a great way to munch them Hortster. Put a fat handful into a plastic grocery bag, add a slug of EV olive oil, dash of salt, and a sprinkle of curry powder, and shake well. Then toss onto a hot grill and sear them until they are about half brown/black, turning over once. Droooool!

TomNJ

TomNJ - tried your grilling recipe. Love it! Yum. Didn't char 'em, just "grill marked" 'em. One has to like garlic and curry, but yum. Only heartbreak involved is that the scapes are only available for such a brief time!
Anyway, got to thinking - since they will be in a bag for a month why not dump in 1/4 cup EVOO, 2 tsp. curry powder, and 2 tsp. salt and let 'em marinade? Did this for about 20 scapes. Will let you know!
hortster

First there are never too many scapes. We harvest bushels of them on our farm. I sell most of them but if I have any left or a little woody I dehydrate them and make them into a powder. One year I did an experiment to see how long I could keep them . I harvest scapes in May and kept some till September that were still ok for eating. If you are trying to keep them a long time cut the flower top off and it will store longer.

After the recipe I won't need to store them this year. Friends coming over and we will do another batch tonight. These scapes are from my seed crop - next year I will have enough to pickle or dehydrate. What device (and brand) do you use to dry them? Interesting that leaving the immature inflorescence causes them to deteriorate more quickly. TIA.
hortster

Scapes plus oil in the fridge may be bad due to the botulism problem that goes with garlic stored in oil. Will let you know how scapes and oil in baggies works in the freezer. lol

Chopped scapes in OO work great in freezer, prechopped with cleaver and very slightly sauteed, cooled and tripple snack bagged and wide mouth bottled. These morsels are great on garlic toast, pastas, omelets...etc. Enjoy!

Mine seem way too hot for eating - like biting into a very pungent garlic clove. They are from German Porcelain plants - are this cultivar's scapes normally that 'strong' or is it something related to my growing conditions? I can only use them as I would garlic cloves, and very strong cloves at that.

Don't know about German Porcelain, mine are rocambole and are wonderful with TomNJ's recipe - not hot, just wonderfully flavorful. But, will try freezing in OO those that are still in the bag!
Thanks, ya'll!
hortster
PS Mine are starting to go dormant in zone 6A, maybe a week or two from harvest. How about YOURS in YOUR ZONE? Kinda curious.

All scapes are a bit hot and garlicky when eaten raw. If you saute or grill them, the heat goes away and they take on their own unique taste. Delicious!

TomNJ

I'm in Central IL (Z5) and I've got scapes probably less than a week from being harvested. I can't wait, this is my first time growing hardneck garlic.

Can you get scapes from soft neck? I assume you can't since I don't see a resemblance on my soft neck.
Next year, I'm trying two hard neck varieties actually grown near my house in Mesa, AZ. Maybe I can enjoy scapes as well. They sound so good!

Softnecks generally do not put up scapes, unless they are stressed.

TomNJ