If you’re growing enough garlic to feed your family, you’re also growing enough garlic scapes to feed an army. When the garlic scapes start popping up, it’s hard to use them all fresh. Sure, they’re good in scrambled eggs and they make a spectacular fresh garlic scape pesto but even after you’ve used them every way imaginable, they’re still coming…
It’s time to pull out the canner and make pickled garlic scapes. Home-canned pickled garlic scapes taste like extra garlic-y pickled dilly beans, with an extra crunchy snap. While green beans can sometimes get a bit soggy in the canner, garlic scapes barely even feel it, coming out crisp and flavorful every time.
Garlic scapes are long, and it’s a shame to cut them down to size for canning jars. Try using extra tall pint and a half jars for a more dramatic finished presentation on the table. They also make really pretty gifts that way.
I’ve found that you can pickle them in two shapes. The long straight stems can be cut to length for tall canning jars, but the curl above the straight portion fits perfectly into a wide mouth jar. Try canning up both versions, the straight pickles and fun curly Q’s.
Pickled garlic scapes preserve short-lived garlic scapes for year-round eating. Yield: Roughly 3 pints (or 2 extra tall pint and a half jars) Canning Method: Water Bath Headspace: 1/2 inch Process Time: 10 Minutes for pints and 15 minutes for 1.5 pint or quart jars
Canning Pickled Garlic Scapes
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Kristina
Have you ever tried this with white vinegar? I wonder if it would work.
Ashley Adamant
I’m sure it’d be tasty with white vinegar as well. I almost always use cider vinegar just as a matter of course, but there’s no reason not to use white. Let me know how they turn out if you make them with white vinegar.
alanna dorf
i prefer the taste pickling with white vinegar personally- and have had success for scapes, dilly beans, cukes, beets and fennel.
thanks for sharing all the ideas and tips for helping one keep all the garden goodness
Diana Schulze
Wow! Such a wealth of information! Love it! Thank you. Diana
myna lee johnstone
Are you cutting off the bulb part? What do youb do with it?
Ashley Adamant
We generally eat those scrambled in eggs for breakfast, they’re my favorite part. You can pickle those too though!
Julia Sanders
Do you have to use dill? I personally don’t like dill.
Admin
I used dill seed in this recipe, but you can omit it.
Angela Meier
Can I pickle the stem part as well? I’ve cut them, and they kind of remind me of asparagus, so I’m hoping they will soften INV a pickling brine as well?
Kaitlyn Lauzon
Can I use fresh dill instead of seeds?
Ashley Adamant
Yes you can!
Heather Fairley
Hello, I made these and they’ve been in my pantry for 3 weeks.
When I processed them in pints, I boiled for 10 minutes, then turned the heat off and removed the lid, and left them in there for another 5 minutes before pulling them. All the cans “popped” on my counter properly. 24 hours later, I removed the rims and wet-wiped off the lids and threads before putting them in the pantry.
Since storing them, my pantry smells a lot like garlic. I’ve never pickled anything that I can smell outside of the sealed jars before. We have checked that the centre of each lid is still firmly in the down position, it won’t budge when we press on them, so I think none of them have a broken seal. Do you think it’s okay that I can smell the pickles? Does this ever happen to you?
TIA
Administrator
I have never experienced anything like that before. That’s definitely very odd. As long as your seal seems good, then they should be ok to eat.
François Cantin
Try washing with soap all outside surface of all jars.
Rebecca Marshall
Most likely some of the brine siphoned out during processing. If you wash your jars with warm, soapy water after processing, the residue will be gone (and the smell, too!).
donna-mae mcquaig
How can you use the blossoms off of the garlic scapes?
Administrator
Here is a great article that I found that gives a lot of great ideas for using the blossoms. They can be cooked or eaten raw in a variety of dishes.
Jackie
I save them in my scrap freezer bag for making stock.
Lucy V.
Looking for recipe to make butterscotch syrup for a friend that love love loves butterscotch anything. Want to give as Christmas gift.
Thank you
Lucy
Ashley Adamant
You know, I’ve never had butterscotch syrup myself, so I can’t give you any particular personal recommendations, but maybe try this one? http://www.foodpreserving.org/2012/07/day-68-butterscotch-sauce.html
Emily
Thank you for this post! I plan to follow this recipe for some leek and onion scapes. I just have one question. What does the salt you use weigh? A bit of research has shown me that if substituting a different type of salt, you need to go by weight as the grains are different sizes, and I would like to use sea salt. Thanks!
Administrator
The conversion for pickling salt and sea salt would be about the same. They are both larger grains of salt.
Shelly Merritt
I have left over vinegar mixture…can I save it and use at a later time?
Administrator
If you have leftover vinegar mixture then it should be fine to save it for later in this particular case since this is a raw pack method and the vinegar solution has not had contact with the vegetables. If the vinegar solution had been mixed with the vegetables, then it would not be safe to reuse.
Enid
I canned my first scapes on Sunday and a friend said I just needed to pour the brine over and not process. I’m concerned that is wrong advice. Can I process them now, two days later or are they unsafe. Please advise. Thanks
Administrator
How many jars did you make and where have they been stored?
chantale
Hi! I’m opening some jars that I made from this recipe. There is a film or deposit on the inside of the lid, and in one case along the inside of the jar where the headspace is. It doesn’t really look like mold – but I’m trying to be sure. It looks more like a salty or otherwise hardened film… some light brown spots, and some sort of white. It is raised from the lid, but not by much. The product looks and smells fine, and I see the oily film from the scapes so wondering if it could be that that has stuck to the lid and discoloured.. I’ve been informed of “pinholing” but i don’t really think it’s that. I know this is difficult without a photo, but has anyone ever experienced something similar on the lids of their scape pickles? Thank you!
Chantale