Today, I clipped off the garlic scapes, which are the seed pods of the garlic plant. The scapes appeared about 2 to 3 weeks later than usual, because of our chilly, wet spring. Some people enjoy cooking and eating the garlic scapes, but I find them stringy. I’d rather eat string beans flavored with garlic cloves.

I’m worried about our garlic crop, since 10 percent did not sprout and the rest are submerged in a quicksand of mud. The plants look like dwarves, so maybe I should investigate the market for miniature garlic! We just polished off eating the remains of our garlic crop from last year (which was a banner year), so I plan to start using what we can of this year’s garlic and pretend they are giant garlic chives. Right now, the plant looks like an overgrown leek. In another month, the root should separate into cloves.

And it just started to rain again!