Fermenting Garlic Scapes

Reader Contribution by Kirsten K. Shockey
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Fresh easy garlic—all of the flavor and none of the peeling—sounds too good to be true I know. It’s in the scapes, also called garlic whistles, that we can make some wonderful “convenience food” garlic. This processed garlic is alive with flavor and literally alive with nutrients and probiotics.

If you haven’t yet met a scape, it is the stem and immature flower head sent up in early summer by hardneck varieties of garlic. Some scapes are long and lean, like asparagus. In fact for years I thought of scapes as garlic-flavored asparagus and cooked them accordingly. Other varieties produce scapes that are very curly, almost like ringlets. Either way, when harvested early garlic scapes are excellent fermented.

Concentrated Instant Garlic Flavor

I promised easy and convenient. My number one fermenting choice for garlic scapes is making a fermented garlic scape paste. This simple ferment can go from garden to fermenting vessel in just a few minutes. Once fermented it lasts for months in the refrigerator and with a dip of a spoon you can add mild fresh minced garlic flavor (and bonus live probiotics) to any dish. As summer heats up and the energy for cooking evaporates, this paste can quickly turn the garden vegetables into delicious dishes. Mix the paste with a little olive oil to drizzle over fresh tomatoes, stir a spoonful of paste into yogurt and cucumbers for tzatziki, or into a pasta salad. Mix garlic scape paste into a burger to add a gourmet touch or rub garlic scape paste into vegetables such as summer squash, or meats, that are headed for the grill.

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