Making Garlic Scape Pickles

When I finished making the pesto a couple days ago, I had a bowl of too big scapes I’d saved for making pickles. Before I could get to making them, a friend brought me a bag of her scapes.

I’ve found that about ⅓ of the garlic plants will continue to grow their scapes after the first harvest. I give them about a week and then harvest again. There are also the ones that were too small to harvest the first time.

There’s a good haul of 2nd harvest scapes here

So I washed up the gifted scapes and my 2nd harvest.

When cutting them for pickles, you leave them in lengths that will fit vertically in a pint jar, roughly 3½”. I also cut off the old ends on all the scapes. I found I didn’t care for the thin ends in pickles, so I cut them off. I leave the blossom.

While I was doing this I set the water bath canner to sterilizing the jars. Once I’d finished the chopping, I set the lids and rings to sterilize and started the simple brine heating.

This amount will make brine for 6 jars. Heat it to a rolling boil, then set it near where you will be loading the jars, keeping it covered.

Put the spices in first then start packing the jar.

The scapes go in vertically, packed as tightly as you can.

Using a canning funnel, ladle the hot brine over the scapes, filling the jar to the bottom of the first ring. This leaves ½” headspace for processing.

The lids and rings will be done and you can set them near where you are filling the jars also. Keep them covered. Wipe the rim of the jar clean and put a hot lid and ring on. Screw down firmly.

Fill all the jars. Take out any jars not to be used and put the filled jars back into the canner. Turn the heat up and when it comes to a rolling boil, start timing the processing. Process for 12 mins.

When done, remove from the canner. Set them on a towel, spaced so they can cool slowly. Do not move them until they are completely cool. Then check each lid for the seal (press the center, it should not move/click) and label and date each jar.

Store them in a cool, dry place away from light sources. They will take about 2 weeks to meld the flavors.