I am such a lucky girl. My mom grows row upon row of beautiful, organic garlic back at our farm house. As such I not only get to reap the rewards of the resulting blubs in late summer but I also get a taste of heaven in late spring when we harvest the scapes. For those of you who have never heard of garlic scapes, see below for picture, or have never used them before prepare to be amazed. They are the very top of the garlic plant that is above the ground. If left to mature they would turn into flowers and would lessen the size of the garlic overall since they would take away energy and nutrients from the bulb. You can eat them raw, sauté them with butter or olive oil as a side dish, grill them like asparagus on the bbq, add them to a stir fry, or make them into pesto!

A few tips:

• Find the best olive oil you can! For serious.

• Although a food processor isn’t absolutely necessary, it’s highly recommended.

• A little goes a long way. This pesto is very garlicy. Amazing! But super garlicy.

Garlic Scape Pesto

20 garlic scapes

3/4 cup grated parmesan 1/3 cup pine nuts 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil juice from half a lemon

Makes about 2 cups

Wash and chop the garlic scapes, I had to chop mine very small because my food processor is small and not very powerful. Add them to a food processor with the parmesan and pine nuts. * I had to make mine in two batches* Pulse until the mixture resembles a fine crumb, like tapenade or a bit larger than cooked quinoa. Add the olive oil slowly through the top of the processor while on low speed, if you don’t have a hole in your processor just add the olive oil and put the lid back on. Blend until desired consistency – regular pesto consistency. Stir in the lemon juice and store in the fridge.