What the heck are these weird looking things? Garlic whistles, of course! Or garlic “scapes” you may have heard them called. These are the whirly twirly flower stalks that come up when planted garlic bulbs have gathered enough nutrients to blossom. These are from my garlic plants this year.
Why would one cut them off, you ask… well, there are many very delicious reasons! But the most important reason is that if you’re going to be harvesting your garlic bulbs in a few weeks, you don’t want them to focus on blossoming and producing seeds; you want them to go about their business making a nice healthy, juicy, delicious clove of garlic there under the ground!
Those other reasons, the very delicious ones, are all down to the fact that garlic scapes, if harvested early, are tender and flavorful and can be used pretty much anywhere you’d use onions or garlic. I often sautee mine and put them in fried potatoes or potato salad. One of my favorite things to do with them is mix a handful of chopped whistles into biscuit dough, maybe with a little cheese, and then bake them up… so yummy!