Kinda like a bucket of snakes.

Last fall, I was talking to a friend about planting garlic. She was describing all the finer points of when to plant, when to water, etc. Then she mentioned this thing called scapes. Life has never been the same.

SCAPES

I obtained some very nice planting garlic heads from this same friend, who got it from a nice garlic farmer boy in Northern Utah. I planted them in October, mulched the crap out of them, and pretty much just hoped for the best. This winter was long and hard. There was lots of snow, followed by lots of mud. There was also lots of sub-freezing temperatures and high winds. It is very windy here. Like 60mph. All day.

Sometimes I would stand at my front window and look out at the garlic beds I planted, wondering if those little garlic embryos were still alive out there. I fought back the desire to go dig one up to see what was going on in there.

Sure enough, in early spring, little green shoots emerged. The miracle of life! The following picture was taken in mid-April.

Observe how droplets of water cling delicately to this darling garlic shoot. It inspires humanity by reaching up to the sky!

After a while, other leaves even formed. Meanwhile, the rest of the garden struggled with the long cold spring. Even peas and spinach were moody.

Then, June came along. I knew that this season of scapes was apparently nigh. I waited. I watched. I continuously checked the crevices of the garlic plants for some alien looking things. Then, they appeared; green snakes winding out of the top of the garlic plant like someone was sitting there playing a flute. They jutted out of the top of the foliage then twisted around into loops. I took scissors outside and snipped a few off. I explored some alternative uses:

Edible fashion: The only kind of fashion worth having

Cat Plaything

And yes, they are tasty - kind of like a garlic flavored green onion. Just don't eat the flower part.

Now, all scapes are removed from my roughly 50 garlic plants. The leaves of the plants are now supposed to start browning, which is indeed happening. Next step: garlic harvest! *anticipates*