Pacific Northwest Gardening: Growing Garlic, 1 by mauryhillfarm

mauryhillfarm wrote:
It is time to take off the garlic 'scapes' which are the immature flower stalks. This year they are maturing a bit later than normal for me. I usually remove them a bit earlier in June. I take a paring knife or kitchen shears out to the garden with a bowl to put the scapes in. They are edible, and can be used in stir-fry vegetables, blended into pesto, or added to other dishes where you would use garlic or onions. I cut them off about an inch above the leaf structure.

The lower leaves of the garlic is beginning to dry down prior to harvest, or it would be doing so a little more effectively without all this rain. It is best for garlic to have tapered off irrigation, stopping altogether 2 or 3 weeks before harvest. I usually begin harvesting just before the 4th of July, so the recent rain has not been particularly helpful.