Another silly garlic question

[Skotch]

Last October I planted out some 100 cloves into a bed. All generally appears to be well with the garlic. Last night I went to the allotment to water everything and noticed that the garlic had started to form seed heads. Now, I know that with overwintering onions, you need to remove the seed head. Does one do the same with the seed head of garlic, or leave it alone? Will removing or leaving the seed head affect the garlic bulb in its further development?

I also read somewhere that these seed heads are a tasty addition to omlettes and other cooking. Again, can anyone confirm or otherwise?

Confused of Leicester

[shirlthegirl43]

I believe the heads are known as 'scapes' and they can be used in cooking. My understanding is that the plants that have sent up a flower will not store as well as the others (however the ones I grew last year are still fine) so it might be worth keeping note which ones flower if possible

[jacob marley]

Shirley is right they are called scrapes and you can eat them if you do a search you will find a recpe some where ....jacob

[realfood]

Hard neck garlics produce scapes, whereas soft neck garlics do not. The scapes do not affect the keeping qualities of the garlic head as they come from between the cloves. Take the scapes off to use in cooking, and it will probably give a bigger head of garlic as well. There is further information on this page:- garlic

[Shadylane]

Garlic scapes are beaut. Fry them in a little oil or butter mmmm. If you leave it on, the flower opens up and you get lots of minature cloves - called bulbils- which you can then plant although they apparently only produce wee bulbs. I planted some to try and get more scapes. Our hardneck garlic was teeny last year but worth it for the scapes.