Gardening: now is the time to tend to your garlic scapes
A gardener in the municipality of Powassan, Ont., is busy tending to her garlic to make sure her crop is a bumper one.
"You planted your garlic in the fall. You’ve mulched it, you watered it, you hoed it and in late spring or early summer curly stems appear out of the ground," said Kathie Hogan.
"What you do with these stems or garlic scapes is very important to the growth of your garlic."
But what happens if you don’t cut off those scapes?
"There’s a seed pod at the end of the scape and that seed pod has a hundred garlic seeds in it," said Hogan.
"So you will basically grow garlic in your garden for the next 10 years."
Hogan said it’s critical that you take the scape off your garlic because it forces the energy to go into the garlic bulb.
"The bulbs tend to grow rather rapidly once you remove those scapes," she said.
The scapes look like curly green beans, and Hogan said they taste a little bit like onions.
The long-time gardener said there are several ways to prepare them.
"I put the scapes in a food processor, mince them and put them into jars with some olive oil," Hogan said. "A lot of people make pesto with garlic scapes."
Hogan said raw scapes will last a couple of weeks in the fridge. But if you mince them and put them in a jar with some olive oil, they will last a year.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
U.S. paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.