scapes, not snakes

So you learn something every day, especially these days when you have the internet. The thing I learned yesterday is that the curly tops of garlic plants are called "scapes" and they are edible. In fact, I already suspected they were edible since I've seen bunches of these curlicues in Chinatown. I just didn't know what they were since we've never grown garlic before.
About a week or so ago we started to notice that our garlic plants were starting to send up central stalks from the leaves. They shot up pretty quickly then started to curl around on themselves. From the internet research, I learnt that to encourage the plants to put all their energies into bulb development, farmers cut these tops off when they have done two full curls. This is done before the plant blooms. Then mostly farmers just compost these. What a waste!
The scapes can be used to make a mild pesto or they can be added to stirfries. So yesterday, we clipped the most curly examples (about 6) and added them to a stir-fry cut up in inch-long pieces. Wow. The texture was a great addition - much like a green bean - and the flavour was a wonderful surprise. Milder than garlic cloves but distinctively garlicky. Plus, the scapes look so lovely. They are my new favourites!