Escapades with Garlic Scapes

I’m writing today’s piece (or shall I say peace) on the harvest experience of garlic scapes.  Garlic scapes feel rather newly introduced or featured in my diet and that of what I’ve experienced.  I’ve experienced them the past couple of years at local farmer’s markets.  I even made scape pesto a few years back when a neighbor gave me a bunch from his garden.  Yet, all in all, this flower and stem of the garlic plant seem less than highlighted in our culture’s culinary repertoire.

The scape, which is considered by some to be a delicacy, has the same flavor as garlic, just a little less intense.  It is similar to the asparagus and can be cooked up or eaten raw.  This summer here in Vermont was a plentiful asparagus season.  We had months of days when we were able to pick our asparagus before dinner.  I cooked up asparagus frittatas, spaghetti and asparagus with ham, and sometimes I just steam it and drizzle with a little olive oil.   But now that summer has rolled in, the asparagus are beginning to roll out.   Their spring peak has come to an end.  Well imagine our surprise and excitement when we (my daughter, Athena and I) realized that we had 200 garlic plants in our garden.  This was a project belonging to our former roommate; he had planted his garlic before he knew he was moving.  Today when Athena and I walked out to the garden, boy oh boy, it was prime garlic scape harvesting time.

We clipped the plants; you want to clip the scape before the first leaf of the plant.  The nice thing about this harvest is it is part of a larger picture or process.  Snipping the scape or the bud of the flower, sends more energy in the plant down to the bulb: the garlic!  Bonus: now you have a fresh green vegetable to eat!

With our bucket overflowing with garlic scapes, we pranced gayfully back to the house.  There is something so rewarding, so satisfying about harvesting food.  And we gave our thanks too!  We expressed gratitude for our former roommate – what am awesome thing to share with us.  I had decided on garlic scape pesto for dinner (the recipe follow this article) as a nice way to highlight the harvested bounty.  Next, I wanted to efficiently and successfully store this load of garlic scapes for use in the future.  Our first mission was to chop.

Athena was amazed by the multitude of vegetable.  Ever notice how a garlic scape has a whimsical way about it; its spiral stem leading to a heart shaped bud.  Well the aura of a scape is something to be appreciated.  We chopped scapes for the next 2 hours.  I’ve decided to store a few cups in the refrigerator; these are for cooking scapes in sautés.  I cannot wait to make my Scape Breakfast Frittata for breakfast tomorrow morning: a zesty combination of scapes sautéed in olive oil, 2-3 eggs lightly beaten and poured over the sauté.  Seasoned with salt and pepper and served with a cup of coffee.  Yum, high in protein, strong in flavor- it’s a great way to start a day.

I’ll store another few cups of chopped scapes in the freezer.  This way they can last longer while I’m working with all the fresh ones.  And lastly, I’m making a ton of garlic scape pesto, some of which we had for dinner tonight on farfalle or as Americans know as butterfly pasta.

Health Benefits

The garlic scape, an obvious part of the garlic plant, packs the same nutritional benefits as the bulb itself.  This means scapes provide: protein, vitamin B6, vitamin C, selenium and calcium and help prevent diseases like heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and cancer.  Scapes are also known to boost your immune system and reduce inflammation.  This delicacy is usually only available for a short window of time in the summer (this year we’re talking mid to late June in Vermont).  Look for them at your local farmers’ markets or grocery stores.  Stock up on this seasonal veg and freeze what you don’t use so you have bounty to use throughout the next couple of months.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Servings: about 6 oz

Ingredients:

1 cup garlic scapes, chopped

1/3 cup walnuts

¾ cup olive oil

1 cup cooked, chopped spinach

½ cup grated Locatelli, percorino romano

½ tsp salt

Several dashes of pepper

Directions:

1. Add walnuts to the food processor and chop finely.  Next add scapes to walnuts in processor, and chop.

2. Gradually add olive oil and continue to process on chop.

3. Add spinach and process.

4. Add Locatelli, salt, pepper and gently process just to blend mixture. 

5. Taste and season to preference.

Serve 4 tablespoons of pesto with 1 lb. of pasta.

Additionally made pesto can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

A Kale Affair to Remember

Have I told this story before?  The one about how I hated kale.  How kale and I had such adverse reactions that we couldn’t even try to form a relationship?  How the EAT MORE KALE bumper stickers actually made me cringe?  I smile to myself just thinking about that time from my -not so distant past-. Kale is dated back to the Middle Ages when it was the most eaten vegetable in Europe. Why then, had I felt so estranged and even turned off by it?

Kale was a big deal in Vermont while we were living there.  I had a nutritional educationalist come speak to my high school class one day.  She had them make kale smoothies.  I never heard the end of it.  Those teens were more than disappointed in their green shakes over something more common to a high school cooking class, like popcorn balls or no bake cookies.  But alas, my role as an educator was to facilitate their experiences (Oh but I wasn't in class that day; not interested in a kale smoothie).

I lived with my sister for a while and she used kale.  And it so seem so foreign and strange.  She made kale chips and I wouldn't even try them.  Imagine the role model I was for my daughter…

Then we returned to New Jersey, state of our upbringing, and I started working on farms to connect to the nature piece I need in my life.  While gleaning for Rolling Harvest Food Rescue, http://www.rollingharvest.org/, the founder and executive director, Cathy Snyder, encouraged me to end my hate with kale!  She challenged me to eat the baby kale we were picking at Gravity Hill Farm http://www.gravityhillfarm.com/ - RAW.  

You know, it was a beautiful summer day, the sun shining so bright and strong (we often needed water and rescue in the shade).  But the big beautiful sky was blue and we were all on a high with the idea of collecting free, organic, expensive vegetables, for people in need.  So I just did it.  While harvesting, I just ripped a kale leaf off, pushed it in  my mouth with all five fingers, and began to chew.  Then another leaf, and another leaf.  I was shocked.  For a split second, an out of body experience had me peering down on myself with a crooked eye, wondering when the hell did I turn into a glutinous kale eater! But then I returned to the moment and chewing and tasting and swallowing and bring another and chewing and tasting and swallowing and all throughout the matnra - enjoying. It tasted amazing, so tender. Why had I been so scared?

My relationship with kale was headed in a whole new direction.  I didn’t know it at the time.  My mom signed up for the CSA at Sandbrook Meadow Farm http://www.sandbrookmeadowfarm.com/.  And wouldn’t you know it but kale was one of our first arrivals.  I was leery about how kale would be used and let my mom take it with her share, leaving me and kale apart. 

OK so fast forward, mom’s making the kale, she’s making a soup, She’s saving me a portion.  Oh my Universe!  I love it.  I want it.  Next time we go to the CSA I ask mom to take 2 bunches of kale.  “Do you want to take one home?”, she asks me.  “No, no, no,” I am clear as I back away from the giant leafy green in front of me.  “But make me that soup please.”  Some might call this ‘The Tipping Point’.

From then on, kale is a part of my weekly diet.  I love it.  I cook it.  My family now loves it too.

Enjoy your Fall Equinox.  Make Kale and Sweet Potato Soup!  I did with all plants from either my backyard garden or the CSA farm.  100% organic and local.

                            

Kale and Sweet Potato Soup                                                                        serves 4 as main meal

INGREDIENTS         

                          

1 med onion, diced                                                               12oz diced tomatoes

6 cloves of garlic, whole                                                       2 cups broth

¼ cup olive oil                                                                      2 cups water

1 bunch of kale                                                                     3 sweet potatoes diced

2 t salt                                                                                  1 can pinto beans (or Northern Italian beans)

some dashes of black pepper

2 T fresh basil                                                                                    

2 t. dried parsley                                                                             

Instructions for meal creation:

1 – Prep work: dice onions, peel garlic, wash and massage kale, then cut into 2 inch strips.

2 – Heat oil medium.  Add onions first for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Press garlic in using a garlic press and stir it constant, as to not let the garlic burn.

3 – Add kale and basil and make sure they get mixed well with oil.  Then add in tomatoes and liquids.

4 – Cook for 5 minutes.  Once it is to a boil, add sweet potatoes.  Simmer on low for 30 minutes.

5 – As the soup cooks, taste it for seasoning.  Adjust seasoning as needed.

6 – Add pinto beans.

7- Mix in scrambled eggs and noodles.  Coat all ingredients well.

8 – Serve and enjoy.

Who Knew?

What's New and Beneficial About Kale

• Kale can provide you with some special cholesterol-lowering benefits if you will cook it by steaming. The fiber-related components in kale do a better job of binding together with bile acids in your digestive tract when they've been steamed. When this binding process takes place, it's easier for bile acids to be excreted, and the result is a lowering of your cholesterol levels. Raw kale still has cholesterol-lowering ability—just not as much.
• Kale's risk-lowering benefits for cancer have recently been extended to at least five different types of cancer. These types include cancer of the bladder, breast, colon, ovary, and prostate. Isothiocyanates (ITCs) made from glucosinolates in kale play a primary role in achieving these risk-lowering benefits.
• Kale is now recognized as providing comprehensive support for the body's detoxification system. New research has shown that the ITCs made from kale's glucosinolates can help regulate detox at a genetic level.
• Researchers can now identify over 45 different flavonoids in kale. With kaempferol and quercetin heading the list, kale's flavonoids combine both antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits in way that gives kale a leading dietary role with respect to avoidance of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=38