On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:48:33 -0500, Sqwertz >
wrote:

>On Sun, 27 Jun 2010 17:53:12 -0400, Ross@home wrote:
>
>> We love garlic and we grow and use a lot of it. About a week ago, we
>> de-scaped four 50 foot rows of garlic and all those scapes went to the
>> compost. It was done long before they uncurled and they are still
>> tough.
>
>I buy tender garlic scapes all year round at the Asian grocer.
>Maybe you're just ot growing them correctly?
>
>-sw

I don't know about correctly. We plant our garlic in October, it grows
the following spring, gives us a great crop which we harvest in late
July/early August. That's how we've been doing it for thirty years.
I took part in the discussion when Barb asked about scapes in June
last year. Here's part of what I posted in September after we'd
attended a garlic festival.

<Quote>
>Over the years we've tried pickling scapes, blanching and stir-frying,
>made into a sort of pesto and we've come to the conclusion that the
>best use for garlic scapes is compost ;-).
>

I said that way back in June but, it's now September and today, Gerry
and I attended the Stratford Garlic Festival in Stratford, Ontario.
Beautiful weather today, probably one of the finest days this season.
For anyone in that area interested in garlic, it certainly is a
worthwhile festival. http://stratfordgarlicfestival.com/
Like I mentioned back in June, we tried using the scapes many ways
with very disappointing results and figured we must be doing something
wrong. But, we learned something today, after sampling several
different scape products at the festival, we realized we weren't doing
anything wrong 'cause the stuff we'd made ourselves had been every bit
as good as today's samples.
Therefore, my previous conclusion stands, the best use for garlic
scapes is compost.
We did manage to pick up a few garlic related products plus, we got
what we primarily went for, at least half a dozen new varieties of
hardneck garlic that'll be going in the ground in a month or so.

<end quote>

I guess we'll just continue to use the cloves and forget the scapes.
If anyone in this area wants them next year, grab a bushel basket,
come over, cut them off, they're all yours. It'll save us some labour.
BTW, anyone who hasn't sampled the different varieties of hardneck
garlic is in for a very pleasant surprise when/if they do.
Two of the varieties we grow, Metechi and Siberian are super spicy and
the heat lasts.

Ross.