Greetings from my Kitchen Counter!

It's scape season in Ontario.  Scapes are the cool, curly-Q flowering stems of hardneck garlic.  It's good to cut this part off before it goes to flower, so as to redirect the plant's energy into producing bigger garlic bulbs.

Scapes have become quite popular the last few years, and you can find them all over the farmer's markets and shops.  They have a delicious garlicky bite and I look forward to harvesting the scapes from our garlic plants every year.

You don't have to dig deep into the internet to find all kinds of recipes and ways of using scapes.  This pile got turned into a simple pesto with olive oil, black walnuts and salt and pepper.  Insanely good!  I added a dollop to a heap of steamed veggies and topped it off with my pickled milkweed flower bud 'capers'.  Yum.

So get thee to a farmer's market near you and pick up some scapes this weekend.  And here's a fun tip: Stick a few in a vase for a quirky looking table centrepiece.  Your dinner guests will 'ooh' and 'aah' and you'll feel clever.