Garlic Scapes & Seed Saving
72 Seasons | May 29 - June 2
Seeing their graceful
curves, I almost forgot to
Add them to the soup
Our long-time and dear family friend, Edie, arrived from North Carolina on Thursday with an ice chest full of gorgeous garlic scapes. Garlic scapes are the edible flower stem of hard-neck garlic varieties. As the scapes grow, they curl into amazing configurations. Farmers cut the flowering stem to put more energy into the bulb. From my perspective, the scapes’ aesthetic and culinary attributes are abundant!
All you need is a vase and few garlic scapes and voila - you have a work of art! The scapes do all of the work. They keep growing, so your arrangement just gets better and better. Several days after I put a bunch of scapes into a glass, they had tripled in size!
And, they are delicious. Their flavor is rich and layered but milder than garlic bulbs. I like to sauté them in butter and serve them alongside other dishes. You can also use them in soups, stews, and pestos. When I have gotten them in the past, I have cooked them right away, but I recently learned that the scapes can be frozen or dried.
I remember the first time I learned about cooking garlic scapes. I was volunteering at an organic farm near Tallahassee. When I got there one morning, the manager presented me with a small bundle of scapes. In a sort of hushed voice, she said, “Put these in your car.” The tone in her voice and the look in her eyes let me know that I had just been given a treasure. I cooked them that night and have longed for more ever since then.
Having the garlic scapes around the house prompted me to investigate growing some next year. As I began to search for bulbs, I came across Seed Savers Exchange. In 1975, Diane Ott Whealy and Kent Whealy began their seed preservation work, when Diane’s grandfather Baptist John Ott gave them two varieties of seed, Grandpa Ott’s morning glory and “German Pink Pink” tomato. Since receiving those seeds, the Whealy’s have continued to “steward culturally diverse and endangered garden and food crop legacy for present and future generations” at Heritage Farm in Winneshiek County, Iowa. The organization educates and connects people through collecting, regenerating, and sharing heirloom seeds, plants and stories.
According to their website, during the last 150 years, the world has lost 75% of its edible plant species. Our food system becomes ever more fragile as it loses diversity. In the United States, genetically engineered plant varieties have had a devastating impact on biodiversity, with over half of U.S. farmland now being planted with GM crops.
Seed Savers Exchange meets the challenge of declining diversity in an up-close and personal way that has world-wide and multi-generational implications. Each year, SSE grows select varieties in their gardens at Heritage Farm to keep their seed supply healthy and viable. Then they place these newly grown out seeds into their seed bank and into the hands of gardeners around the nation. They also back up their collection at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway.
Of course, the seed regeneration that takes place at Heritage Farm is important, but it is strengthened by the work of a community of seed savers. (This is another important opportunity for citizen science work, like the ones I mentioned in the last Almanac post). When gardeners grow a variety and save its seeds, the variety adapts to the growing conditions of the area. Without individual gardeners growing and saving seeds, we miss our chance to help seeds adapt to changing conditions. Everyone can play an enormous role in preservation by growing out heirloom varieties for seed in our own gardens.
On the website you can link to the SSE Exchange and find all sorts of heirloom seeds available direct from the growers. I enjoyed reading about the 1500 year old Cave Pole Bean seeds which were found in a New Mexico cave in a clay pot sealed with pitch and carbon dated to 1,500 years ago. The grower advises “Tall poles” to support heavy set of pods and vines that grow over ten feet! The SSE has “Italian Basil from Grandma,” a substantial number of squash varieties, and a plethora of plums, peaches and pea possibilities. And of course, garlic…132 varieties!
It is great fun to imagine growing all of these heirloom varieties, but my favorite part is the stories that go along with the seeds. As the website explains, “These varieties are truly priceless—some represent a family’s immigration story, while others produce memorable, flavorful food dished up, year after year, at family gatherings. Together the seeds of these varieties compose an irreplaceable genetic resource that contributes to the security of our future food supply”…along with an ever-growing community bound together by pole beans and watermelon vines and garlic scapes.
Beth