Ann Hartley
Last night I cut off new growth from the bottom of this leek top and put it in the stir fry. This morning there was new growth already going down from the bottom of the cutting. However, because it was looking a little ratty around the top I grabbed hold of it to trim off the dried-out browning outer leaves. What do you think I found inside?
It looks like a bud to me so maybe there will be a flower. I did some research into what we should call this thing and learned that it is actually a scape, which sautéed in butter and herbs is quite a delicacy, or we can call it an inflorescence, which is the scientific name for a bud that hasn’t opened yet, but is visible on the stalk.
I didn’t know that leek scapes were edible. In fact, I am greatly confused about what is or is not a scape. The Merriam-Webster online dictionary notes that the word entered our English language in 1601 and means “a peduncle arising at or beneath the surface of the ground…” That does not quite allow for the possibility of the scape never having been in the ground, but having come into existence in a glass of water on my window sill.
As much as I wanted to eat this scape, I wanted more to see if it will flower and to see what color flower it might bear, as apparently different varieties come in different colors, ranging from white to pink or even red. So I fed it some liquid plant nutrients, including General Hydroponics FloraBloom.
Have you ever seen the flower of a leek up close? Or garlic? Or an onion? What is your favorite vegetable flower?
I am a huge fan of garlic- I will add it to just about everything I cook…
Same here! I even went to the Garlic Festival in Gilroy and ate garlic ice cream. I grow garlic scapes on my window sill too, to use in place of chives, but the bulbs are my favorite part of the garlic plant.
If you like shoyu (soy sauce) I have a trick for you- drop a buncha cloves in the shoyu container and in the short term, you’ll have garlic flavored shoyu. But it gets better, after you use all the shoyu, you get shoyu pickled garlic!
I have actually done that and also shoyu garlic pickled hard boiled eggs.
You’ll see my idea and raise me! Gonna have to try that…
I like the onion. Never tried leeks before.
Onion flowers are amazing, especially the alium.
Thanks much. I don’t know if this bud will open, but it will be very exciting for me if it does.