[Market-farming] Garlic scapes, garlic greens, & pricing

Road's End Farm organic87 at frontiernet.net
Sun May 3 13:22:39 EDT 2009


On May 3, 2009, at 8:03 AM, georgene blankley wrote:

> Also, what is the definition of "Garlic Scapes" Thanks

Garlic scapes are the flower stalk that grows at the top of hardneck 
garlic varieties.

If you're growing only softnecks, you won't see scapes. Scapes are the 
difference between hardneck and softneck varieties (the remains of the 
base of the scape forms a hard stem down through the stalk and the 
center of the garlic bulb: thus, hardneck).

If left on the plant, the scape will eventually produce a flower head 
at the top of the scape. Modern garlic, however, doesn't set true seed; 
the little bulbils that eventually form there are, as I understand it, 
clones of the original plant, just as the cloves usually planted are. 
You can plant the bulbils, but they will only produce extremely small 
bulbs the first year; while you can increase your seed supply of the 
variety this way, it will take several years of selecting the largest 
cloves from the largest bulbs to get back up to full size garlic bulbs. 
So growers usually remove the scapes early, before they bloom, so the 
plant will put all its energy into the bulb instead; removing the 
scapes early should give you bigger bulbs.

If you snap them off just after they've gotten good length and a nice 
curl to them, but while they're still tender enough to snap instead of 
cut, they're very edible, and can be used the same way you'd use any 
other garlic; though I don't know whether scapes give the full health 
benefits. I bunch about 7 to 9 scapes held together with a twistie. 
Last year's price was 1.50 / bunch (this is not a high-priced area; I'd 
charge more if your markets are somewhere ritzy.) Mine were ready last 
year in late June. They store well in a cooler. You might also find a 
bulk market for them for pesto; I don't know how the pricing runs for 
that.

I also sold garlic greens, earlier in the season: for these I planted 
leftover sprouting garlic, extra close together, in early May for a 
June market. (Undersized cloves can also be used for growing greens. If 
your markets start earlier, plant them earlier; but not later; garlic 
is daylength sensitive and later plantings won't produce goodlooking 
greens as they'll be trying to bulb.) I pull the whole plant, remove 
the remaining bits of old clove for better appearance, bunch them in a 
similar fashionl; last year's price was also 1.50.

And to all -- thanks for the pricing info, on various crops. This list 
is a great resource for that, especially for those of us far enough 
north to benefit from knowing in advance about pricing decisions made 
where the season's further advanced.

-- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
Fresh-market organic produce, small scale
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