Garlic Scapes: The Hidden Garden Treasure You’re Probably Throwing Away

For years, I put garlic scapes in my homemade plant sprays to deter pests. But once I tasted them, YUM! These curly little things that shoot up from your hard neck garlic? They are, without question, one of the most prized harvests in my entire garden.

The flavor is unlike anything you can find at a grocery store or restaurant. It’s a beautiful combination of garlic, green onion, and asparagus — milder than straight garlic, but with that unmistakable garlicky bite underneath. This is the kind of harvest that makes growing your own food so deeply rewarding.

What Are Garlic Scapes?

Garlic scapes are the flower stalks that grow up from hard neck garlic plants in late spring and early summer. They start out growing straight and then curl around into a beautiful loop — which is very pretty. At the top of the scape is a pointed tip called the spathe, which would eventually open into a flower and produce tiny bulbils (little baby garlic seeds) if you left it on the plant.

Here’s the important thing to know: only hard neck garlic grows scapes. If you’re growing soft neck garlic — the kind you usually see braided at farmers markets — you won’t get any. Soft neck has its benefits too, including a longer shelf life and easier braiding, but hard neck garlic gives you this incredible bonus harvest every single year.

Why You Absolutely Must Cut Them Off

Here’s where this gets really practical. If you leave the scape on the plant, it’s going to go to flower, produce those little bulbils, and put all of that plant’s energy into reproduction — instead of into the bulb. And the bulb is the prize! We want big, fat, beautiful garlic bulbs.

So cutting the scapes isn’t optional — it’s essential for a good garlic harvest. The beautiful thing is, you’re not sacrificing anything. You’re trading a flower that would go to waste for a delicious harvest you can eat. It’s a win in every direction.

When to Harvest Garlic Scapes

Timing matters here. You want to harvest your scapes after they’ve curled around once — that full loop is your signal that they’re ready. If you let them go too long, they become woody and tough, and the flavor isn’t as good. Catch them at that one-curl stage and you’ll have tender, flavorful scapes at their very best.

In most growing zones, scapes appear somewhere between late May and early July, depending on when you planted your garlic and what your spring temperatures looked like. Keep an eye on your plants once the weather warms up — they can go from perfect to overgrown faster than you’d expect.

How to Harvest Garlic Scapes

Harvesting could not be easier. You have two options:

1. Use garden clippers or scissors and cut the scape all the way down to where it meets the leaves of the plant. You want to get the whole thing.

2. Just snap them off by hand. They break pretty easily, and honestly, once you get a rhythm going, you can harvest a whole bed of garlic very quickly this way.

I like to use clippers, but I’ll admit that snapping them by hand is faster when you’re in a hurry and have a lot to get through. Either method works perfectly well.

Why Garlic Scapes Are Absolutely Worth Using

Let me tell you why I almost like garlic scapes better than garlic itself. The flavor is milder, more complex, and genuinely versatile. You can use them anywhere you’d use garlic or green onions — in stir fry, scrambled eggs, pasta, soups, salad dressings, pesto, dips, and so much more.

But here’s what really gets me: you simply cannot buy this flavor. It doesn’t exist in any store. It doesn’t appear on any restaurant menu. It is exclusively available to home gardeners who grow their own hardneck garlic. That’s the kind of harvest that makes all the effort of gardening so worth it.

How to Preserve Garlic Scapes

Once you’ve harvested your scapes, you have several great options for preservation. My personal approach is to chop them up in the food processor — it’s faster than hand chopping and works just fine for most uses. Just rough chop them first so they fit, pulse until you have a nice rough mince, and you’re ready to go.

Fresh in the Refrigerator

Chopped garlic scapes will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 weeks. This is the simplest option and perfect if you’re planning to use them regularly in cooking. Just be aware — they have that garlicky, oniony aroma, so make sure your container is sealed well.

Frozen

You can absolutely freeze garlic scapes. Pack them into small freezer bags and vacuum seal if possible — that will extend the quality significantly. One fun option is to freeze them in small portions like pesto cubes in an ice cube tray, then pop the cubes into a bag. That way you can grab exactly as much as you need for a recipe. Just remember that the aroma can transfer to other things in your freezer, so vacuum sealing is worth the extra step.

Dehydrated

Dehydrating garlic scapes works beautifully. I wouldn’t recommend air drying because you’ll have uneven pieces that dry at different rates and risk mold — just use your food dehydrator. The dried scapes can be used in soups, stews, and seasoning blends, and they’ll store well in an airtight container.

These are the bottle labels I put on my filled mason jars. You are welcome!

Freeze Dried

Freeze drying is my absolute favorite method for preserving garlic scapes. You get the best flavor retention and the longest shelf life of any preservation method. If you have a freeze dryer, this is without question the way to go. The freeze-dried scapes rehydrate beautifully and taste remarkably close to fresh.

In this video, Jonathan and I preserve our huge garlic harvest. There are some great tips in here! My favorite freeze dryer is the Blue Alpine. Use the promo code PROVIDENT to receive a discount. I love freeze-drying!

Asian-Inspired Salad with Garlic Scape Dressing

This is one of my favorite ways to put fresh garlic scapes to work, and it has become a regular in our house. John and I make a huge bowl of this and eat it for several days — it’s that good. The dressing is where the magic happens, and the garlic scapes are the star of the show.

Garlic Scape Sesame Dressing

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup fresh chopped garlic scapes

• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari

• 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

• 1 tablespoon olive oil or avocado oil

• 1 teaspoon fresh (or freeze-dried) ginger, grated

• 2 tsp honey or maple syrup

• Juice of 1/2 lime

• 2 tsp miso paste OR 1/2 tsp additional soy sauce + 1/2 tsp tahini

• 1-2 tablespoons water (to thin)

• 1 tablespoon peanut butter

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a blender or tall pitcher and blend until smooth. That’s it. The peanut butter gives it a beautiful creamy texture, the maple syrup balances the garlic and vinegar, and the garlic scapes tie everything together with that incredible flavor. Taste and adjust as needed.

Asian Salad

Ingredients:

• Chopped cabbage

• Kale

• Freeze-dried red peppers (or fresh)

• Fresh cilantro

• Thai basil

• Chives

• Sliced cucumbers

• Shredded carrots

• Shelled edamame

• Toasted almonds

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, pour the garlic scape dressing over the top, and toss to coat. This salad is incredibly healthy, absolutely delicious, and packed with cruciferous vegetables and garden-fresh ingredients. The garlic scape dressing makes it something completely unique — something you genuinely cannot get anywhere else.

A note on ingredients: I use a lot of what I have on hand. Freeze-dried ginger and freeze-dried red peppers are pantry staples I always keep stocked, and they work beautifully here. The herbs I pull straight from my garden — Thai basil, chives, cilantro — but use whatever you have growing. That’s the beauty of cooking from your garden. You work with what you’ve got and it turns out wonderful every time.

Don’t Let These Go to Waste

If you’re growing hardneck garlic — or thinking about planting it this fall — please don’t overlook the scapes. They are a genuine treasure, and they’re yours for free. Cut them at the right time, they make your garlic bulbs bigger, and they reward you with a flavor that no store on earth can sell you.

Have you tried garlic scapes before? I’d love to know your favorite way to use them. Drop it in the comments — we have a wonderful community of gardeners and preppers who love sharing what’s working in their gardens, and your idea might inspire someone else to try something new.