Summer Anew!

It's been almost a year since I've written anything on this blog. I guess part of my reasoning has been, "How do I follow the last post with a giddy account of a new recipe?" Well, I think it's been long enough.

School is out, another summer stretches out before us, and we have a new thing to include in our summer blog. Our participation in a farm share, where fresh, organic vegetables and fruits are delivered to our front door weekly. We won't really know what we get until it arrives, so it's an edible surprise each week. This week was our first veggie delivery! We had the largest head of green leaf lettuce I've ever seen. Beets, radishes, and scallions will add some zip to our salads. Some chard, and greens were included too. The best part, is we discovered a brand new treasure: garlic scapes. These are the flower and stalk of the garlic plant. They are harvested when the stalk grows in a curl, back on itself. See?

Harvesting the stalk and flower aids the garlic bulb in its efforts to get bigger and bigger, and we'll see those later on in the season. But the scapes are deliciously garlic-y. Almost bitingly so. MyFarmShare, the local CSA we are a part of, provides recipes and tips each week, and I used the recipe below, as they suggested. We LOVE it! My husband is actually upset already that we may not be able to find scapes in the stores when they are out of season. If you can rustle up some garlic scapes, you must try this. Below, you can see the ingredients before they got pulverized in the food processor. Enjoy!

Garlic Scape Pesto

Garlic scapes (approx. 1 cup)
Sea salt (teaspoon)
Very good olive oil (approx. 1/2 cup)
Nuts - walnuts, pine nuts or cashews (1/4 cup)
Parmesan Cheese (two tbl spoons grated)
Basil and/or mint (optional)

1. Cut the garlic scapes into quarter-inch pieces.

2. Place scapes in a food processor or blender with the nuts, salt, herbs and cheese.

3. Blend the mixture as you slowly pour in the olive oil until it whips together easily and forms a puree.

4. Serve over pasta, fish, crusty french bread or add as a garnish to soup. Pesto can be stored for several weeks in the refrigerator and several months in the freezer. Do not heat. Bring to room temperature before serving.