Elephant Garlic Scapes: picking, freezing, impact on garlic harvest
Вставка
- Опубліковано 29 лип 2015
- This is the second video in a series about the seven, yes, 7 different products that you can harvest from elephant garlic. This video is about elephant garlic scapes -- the flower stalks. Stick around to the end and I'll also show you what effect picking the scapes has on the final size of the elephant garlic bulbs, too.
"Scape" is just a fancy name for a leafless flower stalk that comes directly from plant's root. Elephant garlic scapes are different than the scapes of other garlic, which start looping around in a circle. If you wait for elephant garlic scapes to do that, you will wait forever! An elephant garlic scape can get 5 or 6 feet tall! Don't wait that long Get those elephant garlic scapes while they are short, so there's no plant energy wasted on growing that tall flower stalk.
Elephant garlic scapes are so easy to harvest! How easy? Well, I had to leave town right as the scapes were coming up. Even though they keep in the refrigerator a couple weeks, I left Klutzy Gardener with instructions to pick the rest of the scapes and put them in the freezer. You can see it's not hard. But you can also watch the video and hear Klutzy Gardener's perspective. In answer to his question, you simply put the chopped scapes and small flowerheads in the freezer, without any blanching.
Here's what's great about elephant garlic scapes. You get a summertime harvest to eat -- and the removal of the scapes increases the size of your elephant garlic bulbs, too. here are some heads of elephant garlic that came from the same patch. Can you tell which ones had their scapes cut off?
Well, I hope things are going well at your place. I'd love to hear how you use elephant garlic scapes -- so leave a comment! Subscribe so you don't miss out on the 5 future videos on more things you can harvest from elephant garlic!
Elephant garlic harvest #1: Spring Leeks --
• How to use elephant ga...
Mulching elephant garlic with leaves --
• Using leaves to mulch ...
My gardening playlist:
• In the Garden
My channel:
/ @haphazardhomestead
The curly garlic scape photos are by Rebecca Slegel and used under a Creative commons 2.0 - Attribution license. No changes were made to the two photos.
Photos: www.flickr.com/photos/grongar...
Creative Commons license: creativecommons.org/licenses/... - Навчання та стиль
thanks for this! I showed a video of my elephant garlic to my mum and she said i ought to cut the stalk or scape off. I then found your video. I'm going out there and harvesting that straight away! :D
I hope you enjoy your elephant garlic scapes, Rhyannon Smith! Your mom gives good advice! ; )
Pickled scapes & pesto ! Delicious
Can you make a video about how you use the garlic scapes in your recipes?
❤breakfast scramble, Stir fry w/veggies, dip in Tempura Batter!
Beer Batter Deep fat fry.
Really nice!
I have wild elephant garlic scapes, that were given to me by a friend. They came from a patch that was planted over 70 years ago.
Great video on garlic elephant garlic scapes. I love them in stir-fry vegetables and my morning egg-white scramble. :)
lovers4healthylife You grow some great elephant garlic, too! It's nice to hear your favorite way to use them.
Amazing 👐
Great information for garlic growers!
Mumbai Balcony Gardener | Avid Life Observer Thanks! There are some surprising differences between elephant garlic and other kinds of garlic.
You have peaked my curiosity. Have done well with porcelain garlic, the flavor/heat is different than the store bought, ours are yikes hot after they sit awhile & the flavor is ok. In northern B.C. they stay in the garden 2-3 years to get half the size of your elephant garlic, and this is with a load of hay from the chicken coop, so they get way more attention. Our boreal forest area has heavy clay dotted with marsh ponds and will plant a few about to see if the will grow wild. Will be on the lookout for an elephant garlic to plant in the garden too, thanks!
I planted elephant garlic last fall and it is huge now already in late April in Ohio. I cannot wait to harvest some scapes and the bulbs also. Tx for this nice and informative video. Happy Spring from Song
Great information on elephant garlic scapes! After seeing the difference in bulb size, I really need to get more on top of removing the scapes.
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening Thanks Patrick for sharing I subbed to learn more peace Brother
OneYardRevolution | Frugal & Sustainable Organic Gardening Elephant garlic does everything so enthusiastically. The heads of garlic can be huge, but so are those flower stalks and blossoms, so the net impact is pretty significant.
Ma'am I loved every single video and I was very happy to learn a lot from you..........I live in India and I am very lucky to have parents who love plants but the thing is that my parents are very orderly, and I am completely the opposite I rather have the plants grow on their own in their own way haphazardly, but my parents keep everything nice and neat..........and when my brother and I were young we used to complain to my parents saying " you care more about your plants than about us" and my mum would say " you kids have feet and hands to move about and get whatever you want but plants can't move on their own and when you are sick you can say how you feel but plants can't and when they show that they are sick it might even be too late to save them" and with that we would keep quite.........but when I was in seventh grade I picked biology as my subject and I was extremely interested in the field and every time in class my biology teacher would ask me if I had the plants we would be studying about and i actually realised what pleasure plants and animals give me.......I would even go so far as to burry an ant I crushed by accident with full respect and I would hit my younger cousin brother if he pinched any plant and I would act like my mum and my cousin sister would laugh at her brother for that and I would tell them about the plants and animals and hoe they are like us though they don't have a visable mouth they still have feelings and that the plants we grow as garden plants have their ancestors in the weeds and other wild plants we see
Thank you! Mine don’t curl, so you solved the mystery for me! Cutting and freezing tonight!
New sub !
I love scapes! Your videos are very informative, well done! Thanks for sharing! Misilla
Learn To Grow Thanks for the kind words. Garlic, of any kind, is such a rewarding crop to grow!
HChrisH200 - Haphazard Homestead I there new gardening sister! I will be needing the gardening tips to plant etc. I heard Fall is the time so I better be ordering me some huh? Peace
4skully I'm always happy to hear that someone is starting to garden! Fall gardens are so under appreciated, especially if you like greens and root crops. Even when I lived in Michigan, I could have broccoli into November in most years. So, depending on where you are, your fall garden could be great. Happy gardening!
HChrisH200 - Haphazard Homestead
Thanks sister for your encouragement it is greatly appreciated.
Beautiful plants. Elephant garlic is delicious.
superslyfoxx1 Thanks! They are so trouble-free, it's a shame more people don't grow them. Enjoy eating your elephant garlic! : )
Thank you gor sharring your wisdom
Thanks for sharing.
You. Patrick, Siloe and Kaye keep on making my list longer - but I'm a gardener, I do not mind! Guess i'll be ordering this to get a patch in this fall.
If you find elephant garlic at the store, it will work, too. And welcome to the club of the ever-growing list of things to try in the garden! : )
Excellent info and to the point
Love your videos!
+Jaclynne T Thanks for the nice words! And thanks for commenting!
I sautee my garlic scapes gently and then I mince them and make compound butter.
That sounds really good, phillip kopp! Thanks for the recipe. I'll have to try that!
I had a subscriber send me to your channel. Love all that you are showing with the elephant garlic. We have a long row in our garden. Hoping to have a bountiful harvest. I didn't know about the scape removal. Thanks
What a nice surprise! Elephant garlic is such a great plant. Enjoy your scapes! The same idea applies to regular garlic, too. The bulbs will get bigger and the scapes are good eating. Win, win for everybody! And happy foraging, too, since you are fans of the wild plants, too!
I was going to let the scapes on ours grow because I like the flowers, but you've changed my mind! I'll probably leave a few to flower, but I'll definitely be harvesting most of them.
I like leaving some Elephant Garlic to flower, too, Sustainably Yours Homestead. They are so pretty and the flowers are good to use, too. But it sure does make a difference in the size of the garlic harvest to cut the scapes. But those scapes are a whole food crop themselves. I hope you enjoy them for eating, too!
thanks
You're welcome! Enjoy your elephant garlic -- including the scapes!
TY.
looks not bad,and great to eat
atb
steve
They are worth harvesting to eat, as well as to increase the size of the elephant garlic cloves. I like them grilled, too!
Hi - I have planted Elephant Garlic for the 1st time this year and even after an attack by wild boars they are looking good. Ten minutes ago I harvested a big load of scapes and will use and freeze as you recommend (thanks for that !!). What I am wondering is what now? I have grown normal garlic before which (as you know) is just a case of waiting for the stems to die down and then drying. My hopes for Elephant Garlic (which is the way I am going in general with my veggie garden) is for it to be perennial. If I just leave it does it spread out? Can I just tear off the odd bulb? If I cut off the thick stems to use like leeks would that kill the bulb(s). Does it work to have a perpetual bed like that?
Thanks for your time in making these videos - so useful !!
So glad to hear your voice, haven't seen a video of yours floor a while. I grow both reg and garlic. I put garlic in honey and Apple cider vinegar and was thinking of putting some in white vinegar. I watched all of your videos on elephant garlic so I got more ideas. But I was wondering what do we do with the flower heads and yes they are pretty, ty for all you do
Also I dehydrated and blended my garlic into powder
Just subbed to your channel. I am in dire need of some help with planting garlic & onions so PLEASE excuse this lengthy comment. I had bought some of these "Unknown" garlic from a seller on eBay but they were not called elephant garlic but referred to them as "WILD GARLIC". This is my first attempt at growing any type of garlic and also several types of onions. Guess I am learning from my mistakes this FIRST TIME PLANTING. I have some regular garlic bought at the local feed/seed store and when the leave started dying back, I pulled a few and they were more like a green ONION bulb (but a little rounded) with a super strong HOT garlic taste & smell. A buddy of mine tried one by popping it into his mouth and at first LOVED the taste until the heat hit. He spit & sputtered and couldn't get the heat/strong garlic out of his mouth for approx. 30 min. I have planted what I think is called "wild garlic". I thought they were wild onions but have since found the tiny wild onions growing in my woods so knew they must be wild garlic, instead as they have top setting bulbils that will get top heavy and fall to the ground & make a new plant. I found a major huge field of these growing, dug up some of what I thought were onion sets as well as collected the seed head bulbils and planted several hundred of different sizes. I remembered they were going to seed in June last year so from the looks of the top setting bulbils now, they are HUGE and actually kind of beautiful with tendrils swirling around as they are falling to the ground. I will harvest some of the seed heads to replant in my WILD GARDEN as well as have some stay in the ground to establish a bed of them. I also got some Egyptian Walking Onions online, and they, too, have the top setting bulbils (much larger than the wild garlic) but a lot of the stalks died or bent over by some strong winds we recently had so it doesn't look like I will have any seeds to sow of these this year. I have hundreds of these Egyptian Walking Onions (of all different sizes ) but am at a point now, WHAT DO I DO WITH THEM. Some say leave some in the ground as a mother plant and every couple of years divide the clumps. They are supposed to be perennials that keep reproducing year after year. Same as the other top setting wild garlic. I have not had any luck planting & harvesting garlic of any kind and wonder what am I doing wrong. I have searched so many internet sites as well as youtube channels to see if I can find answers but nothing or no one identifies to my planting/harvesting especially being in the deep south (Coastal Alabama-Zone 8b) where we have super hot summers with HIGH HUMIDITY (this morning at 3:00am it was 71 (F) with 90% humidity)...that is kind of STICKY, & the air is thick as pea soup that hits you in the face when you walk outside early in the morning & will literally TAKE YOUR BREATH-AND IT IS NOT EVEN SUMMER TIME YET! I grew some onion sets (but have since found out they were the wrong type (who knew to look for long day or short day) for my zone and all the work I put into getting the new raised bed made, onions sets planted resulted in just some nice green onions. Leaves were dying and some were a bit soft/mushy that I have found to be because they were past time to harvest & were starting to rot. (PLUS we have had an exceptional amount of rainfall this spring...to the point of our rivers flooding) so maybe they got TOO MUCH water??) ALL info read & UA-cam vid's indicate to plant in the fall (which I did for all my garlic & onions) and harvest the following summer in June/July. Well, that is evidently not true for my zone as the tops that formed when planted in the fall never died back because we didn't have a cold enough winter. They grew straight thru from the end of September (I should have planted in November, from what info I have since gathered). My plant leaves started turning yellow & brown about a month ago but it being mid-APRIL, I ASSUMED it was too early to harvest THINKING I had to wait until June/July as per the videos. Same thing happened with what I now know was Elephant Garlic. I have a tall scape now on the only plant I left in the ground. I thought it was a seed head and wanted to save it for the seeds. (I am an avid seed collector). The other 4 plants I harvested had golf ball & smaller size bulbs that looked like a round onion with no individual cloves so I assumed it did like my other garlic and just made some sort of ONION bulb with a garlic taste. I did cut the green leaves and bulbs and froze to use in cooking (I use garlic in just about everything I cook) & I BELIEVE in the beneficial health & medicinal properties of garlic, especially fresh. (I am also learning to forage my 40 acres of WOODLANDS for wild edibles, those with medicinal benefits (dandelions, plantain, wild lettuce, stinging nettle, beauty berry, & many others and have learned to correctly identify turkey tail mushrooms & fake turkey tails, Lions Mane, Puffs & the shelf/bracket mushrooms (some of which are not edible) & I'm still not confident about other mushrooms for fear of them being poisonous. Anyway, at the ripe old age of 62 I'm trying to learn to live off the land (may HAVE to in order to survive in these uncertain times in which we live. I have gardened all my life as well as raising rabbits & chickens ORGANICALLY I just can't get the knack of raising garlic & onions. (Trying my hand at raising some potato's in half 55-gallon plastic drums. They are towering over the top of the drums now so HOPEFULLY I will get a few potato's. Can't wait to learn to grow things you never have before WHEN IT MAY BE NEEDED FOR SURVIVAL! I would greatly appreciate ANY HELP OR ADVICE on correctly raising/harvesting garlic & onions as I am about to pull my hair out trying to figure out what I am doing wrong. No help to be found locally as most of the old time gardeners are dead & gone or too old or don't remember how in my VERY rural, backwoods area. The local county extention office just gives you printouts of our zone & when to plant different crops. PLEASE HELP or refer me to someone that can. I'm on satellite internet with limited bandwidth usage so I can't spend hours watching videos to find the RIGHT GO TO PERSON. Thank you kindly for any info/advice you can offer this old desperate homesteader. Blessings to you & yours!
Wow!!! I just found out I had some of these, seemingly, growing wild in my front yard. Never knew what they were. Too late now I guess to harvest since the bulb on top is "open" and there are what looks to be seeds in it. Maybe next year....they seem to always come back. :)
Elephant garlic is a great plant. Once you have elephant garlic growing on its own, you are set. I eat the leaves, the young stalks, the scapes, the flowers, and the bulbs. Enjoy your scapes next summer!
I will try that!! Thank you!! :)
Thanks for this video!
This is the first year I've got elephant garlic with my soft neck, and I was wondering how to deal with the scapes.
I hope you enjoy your elephant garlic scapes!
Wow that's quite a big difference. I haven't grown elephant garlic but always remove the scapes on my regular garlic and was wondering if it made much of a difference and forgot to try it out on one this year. Maybe next year I'll remember to do that. I look forward to seeing what else you harvest from elephant garlic. I did get a couple of heads of it from my neighbor but haven't decided if I'll save some to plant next year or not. Maybe I will after watching this series. :)
ps. my fav way to eat scapes is to coat them in olive oil and salt and put them on the grill. mmm
Gapeys Grub Elephant garlic does so well here in the Pacific Northwest and it's nice to have something that isn't bothered by slugs! I would have loved some grilled scapes, but had to leave town right at the key time -- and I had a lot of scapes! So it's good that I got Klutzy Gardener to freeze them all! Enjoy your elephant garlic!
HI! I just moved into a house that belonged to my family up until 5 years ago. Blessed that the new owner allowed us to rent my grandmothers house. I know that up until she passed away in 2015 her rose garden beds did NOT contain garden plants but the last five years I have no idea what the previous renters may have done. Here it is April and I am finding these type of plants growing like crazy and pushing up the barrier the owner put down in the areas. Some of them look like camas, but some of them look like leeks - I pulled some and the ONION/ Garlic Smell on these are intense which leads me to believe they are not camas. How do you know how to identify if they are elephant garlic?? That would be so amazing if it was.
My elephant garlic has huge beautiful flowers. I was told the flowers are edible and can be used in salads. But I searched the web and can't find anything that says the flowers are edible. Are they?
Do the scapes keep growing back or are they one and done
Hi ya Chris! Well, i guess it’s too late for me to have garlic this year ☹️ but I’ll definitely get some to plant this fall! I would like to have a perennial garden, n order for me to do this with elephant garlic, would I need to plant several, and just harvest some the next year but leaving some??? But I’m thinking from the video I watched before this, they bunch up, therefore cloves will not form, and I’ll get leaks, is this correct??? And if I want cloves, and big ones, I need to plant cloves n a different bed, cut off the scapes, I think the leaves r supposed to dye, then I harvest the cloves, is that correct??? Right now, I’m a greenhorn when it comes to gardening, but I want to be more knowledgeable! I’m happy to know that blanching is not needed, Thank u for the tips!!!
Yes, you have that right, joy. If you want the big elephant garlic cloves, plant them in the fall, in a regular garden, cut off the scapes the next spring, and then harvest the bulbs in the summer when the lower leaves have started to die. If you don't harvest them, the bulbs will split and turn into a clump. So you can have some that you use for perennials, enjoy their big flowers, and then dig them up to use like leeks in the spring.
Question, does elephant garlic scapes always grow in circles, I thought I was growing elephant garlic but they grow straight. Usually one or two, but mostly one extremely large clove
The video said if you let them grow they will eventually start to loop, but don't wait that long as the plant wastes energy growing the scape and the clove stays smaller.
I planted a LOT of garlic this year, my first elephant garlic too!! They have developed massive scapes, well, now they are what I have heard to be called bulbils. I feel I should have removed them a while back, I went out there today and cut some of them off. They are quite big around and hollow and watery. Did I do the right thing?? I also chewed on a few and found some of them to be tough, maybe even fibrous. They look nothing like the scapes that were chopped up in this video. I mean, they were at least 1 inch across. So I ask again, did I do okay? Or did I mess up? Oh, I have some shallots next to them that also have scapes. I let them develop bigger than what the pictures I have seen look like. sigh.
I think a lot of bulbs get sold as Elephant Garlic that are not really Elephant Garlic! The scapes of both true garlic and Elephant garlic are solid, not hollow. And the Elephant Garlic will not have any bulbils, or little bulbs, at the top. If the scapes are hollow, you have some sort of onion or shallot. Top-setting onions and some shallots will make those bulbils. But most onions and shallots will just make flowers. Onion and shallot scapes are edible, too, but to my taste, they are more 'slick' with a sticky fluid, like okra (but tasting like an onion). Onion and shallot scapes should be removed as soon as they start growing, if you want bigger bulbs. Otherwise the plant will put energy in that stalk rather than the bulbs down in the ground. I hope that helps!
Thank you!! And you are right about the shallots, that's what they are! I have elephant garlic right next to them and I was a bit confused. Still, I should have cut the scapes sooner but I'll know for next year.
T y❤
I use mine to make garlic scape pesto.
growingupgarden That's great! They are so mild, they make a wonderful pesto. You've inspired me to make some, too, out of some of my frozen scapes. Thanks!
my have bloom can i eat the flower part of the garlic
Yes, indeed. You may find the flavor stronger than what you like. But I put them in salads and use them in cooking, too. And they make a great Elephant Garlic Flower vinegar that smells just like garlic bread! I've been collecting footage to make a video about how to make that vinegar. It's so good! Enjoy your Elephant Garlic!
Haphazard Homestead thank you so much
Non of mine came up to dry this year durnit
That's too bad. I hope your weather is not so dry next year. : )
I need to star grow some garlic
LCJ farms Elephant garlic is one of those crops that just keeps on giving, without asking a lot. I have them in beds where I'm trying to improve the soil because I can mulch them without slug problems. But they grow on their own in unexpected places, too, including flowerbeds that get no additional water here in our dry summers, and in the open lawn where there's a little shade. If you give them a try, let me know how it goes!
Do you rent out your Klutzy Gardener? Like all your videos!
He comes in handy, that's for sure. Thanks for watching and commenting! I hope you get to enjoy some elephant garlic!
The name is a misnomer as elephant garlic is not a garlic. It is a leek.
Yes, indeed! And it's not an elephant, either. That's just some garden humor, lol. I do appreciate you pointing that out. It sure looks like a leek in its growth form above ground. If somebody could come up with a memorable name that has leek in it, that would be more accurate, for sure. They are such great plants!
*👍класс и привет от тренера по футболу!!!!!*
Bio
0
L