Garlic Scapes in the Skies of Goshen

In botany, a scape is a flowering stem.  The scape of garlic, Allium Sativum,   begins to curl after having formed a bulbil that will soon flower.  Scapes should be broken off to enhance the final underground growth of the bulb, or what we call the head, which we will harvest in about two weeks when the cloves have fully and distinctly developed.  Until then I cook with the whole plant using both the immature head and the green leaves; this is spring garlic.

Harvesting garlic, from the Tacuinum Sanitatis, illuminated in Lombardy ca. 1400; a handbook on wellness, food and agriculture based on the Taqwin al Sihha تقوين الصحة, Tables of Health, an eleventh-century Arab medical treatise by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad.

 
When I lived in San Francisco’s North Beach I often took the 30 Stockton, an overhead electric trolley, that went through Chinatown.  There, the bus was  crowded—standing-room-only—and reeked of garlic, the so called "stinking rose," that is eaten to ward off plagues according to the annals of TCM, Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Garlic Scape Pesto 

1/2 pound peeled garlic scapes, finely chopped
6 T fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
salt to taste