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Thursday, July 17, 2014

Great Scapes & Fermented Radishes

 I think we are all familiar with the fist of garlic. Those lovely little cloves add so much to our food.

 At the market Roots Down Organics has been offering garlic scapes. There are those who are thrilled to find them and happily buy several bundles and have plans for them. There are others who stop and look and wonder what they are. They sure are neat to look at!

 The scape is actually the top of the garlic plant. In the fall you plant the garlic, in the spring the garlic plant shoots up its curly top and if left alone, it will flower and set seed.  If your plan was to harvest great fists of garlic later in the summer, you need to cut off the curly top of the plant so that all the energy goes back into growing a bigger and better bulb of garlic.

Scapes can be used the way you use regular garlic, cooked, grilled, sauteed, on pizza, etc.  It is a little like asparagus in texture and not quite as strong as the bulb of garlic.

 I did can some scapes, pickled with a little dill and red pepper flakes.  they are ready to be opened this week so I hope Marty likes them.


            I also brought home some radishes. I thought I would try my hand at fermenting them.

                                                     Sliced with brine added.

                                            Five days later, rosy and tangy radishes.
Both recipes are from Marissa McClellan's great books, Food in Jars and Preserving By the Pint.

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