Garlic Scapes and Radishes: C.S.A Week #1

This summer I joined a CSA. What is a CSA some of you may ask? Well it stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it means that you pre-purchase a share of a farm's harvest. My friend Blaze (lives in Nashville) joined one last summer that she raved about and this summer Ruby and I joined the Covered Bridge Gardens. For the next sixteen weeks we will be receiving a portion of the latest pickings and last night I picked up the first share: popcorn, green onions, garlic scapes, broccoli, and radishes.


I started with the popcorn, popped in a little oil on the stove; fresh and white and lovely with a little truffle salt and fresh rosemary.


Next up are the radishes. Taking inspiration from the Greenhouse Tavern, I am going to keep the radishes simple and let their spicy flavor shine by eating them with just a dab of herbed butter. I will herb the butter with some of the garlic scapes and green onions, fresh basil and rosemary, a squeeze of lemon juice, and a 1/2 tsp of kosher salt.


I'm not very familiar with garlic scapes (AKA green garlic) so I did some googling and came across this article from the June 2008 NY Times on having "A Garlic Festival without a Single Clove". I am going to make the White Bean and Garlic Scape dip to take down to Columbus with me this weekend. I think it will be perfect with carrots and celery sticks and pita triangles.



White Bean and Garlic Scape Dip

1/3 cup sliced garlic scapes (3 to 4)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice, more to taste
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt, more to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
1 can (15 ounces) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, more for drizzling.

1. In a food processor, process garlic scapes with lemon juice, salt and pepper until finely chopped. Add cannellini beans and process to a rough purée. 2. With motor running, slowly drizzle olive oil through feed tube and process until fairly smooth. Pulse in 2 or 3 tablespoons water, or more, until mixture is the consistency of a dip. Add more salt, pepper and/or lemon juice, if desired. 3. Spread out dip on a plate, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with more salt.
Yield: 1 1/2 cups.