Saturday morning, after I packaged 9½ lbs of butter (the most we’ve ever gotten from 2 gallons of cream), I finally got out in the Small garden to finish the weeding.
We had a new hayman coming out to look at our fields for haying. He was due at 9AM. I figured I could work until he got here. Well, 9AM came and went and I finished the weeding. I had a lot of hours until my brother and mom arrived at noon, so I started cutting scapes.
I filled my biggest bowl (it’s about 2’ wide) from the first 2 rows and had to go get another bowl for the last 1½ rows.
The harvest
I brought them in and started washing them. 10AM came and no hayman so my husband called him. He returned the call saying they’d had a mechanical breakdown but he’d be here at 10:30. I kept washing.
I set up to prep the scapes for either pickles (too large pieces) or pesto (all the rest).
The hayman arrived finally and he said that they had just finished haying around here so it would be 5 – 6 weeks before they’d be cutting our fields. This isn’t a problem, as we only want the hay for mulch. It just needs to be not rotted and bone dry to go in the barn. But this means I won’t have a source of mulch right now, and I really need some.
So I went back to work on the scapes while they went over to look at our other 2 fields nearby. They can cut the 2 acre one fine, but have no access to the 10 acre piece. The lane leading to it is too narrow to get equipment down. My husband is going to talk to the farm on the other side to see if there can be access from their side.
The bowl on the left is pieces cut 2” or less in length. This allows the food processor to finely chop them. If they exceed a certain diameter, they are too tough for it to work properly. As this is a raw product, they will remain tough and to me, unpalatable.
So I cut off the ends in lengths a little shorter than the height of a pint canning jar. Those are on the right and will be made into pickles. The pickles are cooked, so the tough part isn’t an issue.
This was the end result of prepping. It looks like I lost a couple jars of pesto to pickles due to the scapes being too old. I just could not put off doing them even 1 more day.
I finished the prep right before noon, when my mom and brother were due for lunch. After we’d eaten and visited for a while, I set up to make the pesto. Weighing the bowl showed I had enough for at least 12 batches.
I’ve found this raw product retains the medicinal values well known for garlic. So I tend to use it more medicinally than as food. That’s why I try to make as much of it as I can, for the year. But it is good as a snack!
So my mom sat and watched and we visited when the processor wasn’t running. They left around 4PM and I still had several batches left to go.
I finally finished around 5PM, with 13 pints of pesto in the freezer. I covered the scapes for the pickles and put them in the fridge.
If you want a more detailed post on making pesto, it’s here.
I got an e-mail at noon from our Market Share farm telling me strawberries would start on Sunday, not Tuesday. So I will be out picking 2 flats of strawberries, about 25#, at 9AM Sunday morning. Once those are in the freezer, and some reserved for a shortcake supper, I will start the garlic scape pickles.
The weather has turned cool again, down in the 40’s at night. Tomatoes, peppers, and especially basil will NOT be happy, but there’s no hope for it. With the windows closed at night in the house, I miss the dawn chorus as dawn appears. Today is to be low 70’s and tomorrow mid 70’s then into the low 90s’ by the end of the week.
I should be out in the gardens during this cool spell, but the food must get processed….
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Wow, that's quite a harvest! I've only ever had my garlics form scapes one year. That was also a really good harvest year, with huge bulbs. From what people were saying it had something to do with a drier than usual winter. I'm still not sure why they don't usually scape, perhaps our heat. They still grow fine, though.
@tipu curate
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You are using the same variety each year?
Yes, I just plant from the previous ones.
That's odd you don't get scapes. You are much farther south, right?
Yes. South Australia. Desert like in summer.
It occurred to me after my last reply, that maybe it just doesn't get cold enough in winter for a bulb like garlic....
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