ScapeWatch '10

We've had our first garlic scape sighting! I ran out of time this morning, so the photo above is from last year's market, where our garlic scapes were a hot ticket item. A scape is the flowering stalk of a garlic plant and emerges a few weeks before the bulb is mature. At first they curl in on themselves and look totally alien and rather whimsical; as the bulbil containing the garlic "seeds" grows, the scape thickens and eventually unfurls to stand straight up. Or at least that's what would happen without human intervention - it turns out that garlic scapes are delicious and cutting them before they unfurl also contributes to bulb growth since the developing bulbil shunts energy from the rest of the plant.

Garlic scapes are fantastic sauteed in butter or as part of stir fry, but the preparation that really gets my mouth watering is garlic scape pesto spooned over a bowl of hot pasta and garnished with grated Parmigiano. We offered the pesto recipe at the market last year and will do so again this year (and of course I'll be posting it on the website too). It's a great recipe to make and freeze in ice cube trays for later in the year when you need a little taste of spring.

The shearers arrived this past Wednesday to shear the sheep, throwing our garden schedule into chaos, but at least that's one more task we can check off of the list! Having the shearers here is always fun because even though the work is hot and dirty, everyone knows there's a huge dinner and good conversation to look forward once night falls. Now it falls to me and Mom to skirt the wool before we can send it off for processing - another hot and dirty task, but the results are well worth it since it means roving for her to spin and yarn for me to knit when the garden winds down in the fall.

I ate the first few sugar snap peas out of the garden this morning, and they were so sweet and crunchy. The pea plants have summited the cattle panel trellises and show no signs of stopping, so of course I went ahead and fertilized them this weekend for kicks. We've experimented with a lot of different types of makeshift trellises over the years from bamboo poles to chicken wire, but the cattle panels are by far the best we've tried so far.

The onions and cabbage are still looking good, and I managed to get another 60 or so Big Italy plants in the ground this morning before starting in on the zucchini. We've got some interesting varieties this year, including one called "Eight Ball" which is shaped like - you guessed it - an eight ball and is good for stuffing. Mom and I are thinking a ricotta and ground lamb mixture would be pretty tasty...

This weekend at the market I picked up a container of "Summer Garden" chevre from the Spinning Spider Creamery booth, and it is delicious. I just finished baking some homemade crackers to use as a vehicle for that creamy goat cheese goodness; it's a perfect light summer dinner. Buying from other vendors is one of my favorite aspects of the market, and I'm especially looking forward to the blackberries and sweet corn later in the summer!

One last thing before I go fix another batch of that pasta with green garlic sauce we've got posted on the website (this time with black olives and prosciutto!): we now have a facebook page, so check it out!