What are they?
Tom

I have been seeing them at farmer's markets in Chicago. I think they are getting more popular. If you educate your customers, and maybe offer some kind of sample dish, they should sell. I have been involved in organic markets though.

Scapes are the top of the garlic plant.

I get $2 for a half pound bag. they sell well at my markets probably because they have been available for about 6 years now. At first there was no market for them but yerars of education and more and more farmers bringing them to market (this year 6 different farms had scapes) has made them into a popular item.

I was lucky, they guy from whom we got our original seed garlic gave me a quart of pickled garlic scapes before I ever grew hard necked garlic.

Garlic scapes are the flower stalks from hardneck garlic. They need to be taken off so the garlic corms can grow as large as possible.

Lucy

Education and recipes are the key. We sell by the piece 10/$1.00. Granted they aren't a "money maker" but during this somewhat sparse time for us, they fill up the table and people appreciate an early garlic replacement. Frankely, we often give a few away with each purchase along with a bit of information on their use. We've had people come back the next week to report back on the scape's merits and thank us for our generosity. Bingo, another loyal customer!! After all what's 10 cents worth?? It makes for great customer satisfaction and subsequent loyality. There are many recipes online. I printed a few for handouts. They're also at times called garlic whistles. They really are a wonderful garlic replacement. Just make sure you cut them when they first curl. Once they've started straightening out they toughen up and are not useable.

Last year was the first year I sold them and I sold them in $1.50 Bags ($3.00 lbs). No one here had ever heard of them But with recipe sheets and garlic scape dip I took each week for folks to sample I sold all of them adding $500 to or market sales for the year for something we had thrown away in the past. Long after they were gone I still had people asking for them. This year I sold them all at $5.00 lbs($1.50 per bag)
Good luck selling them
The Garlic Lady

Isn't it wonderful to make money off of something you thought was waste? I had a crop of purslain growing in some green onions. Pulled it out and thought why not bag the stuff. Sold 5 bags at a $1 a bag. Not bad for something that almost went on the compost pile.

i sold them this year in bundles of four or five, and got 2- 2.50$ for each bundle. they attract a lot of attention cause they look so cool.

i sell mine to oriental food stores.$2.00 a pound.

THank you everyone!!! Next year I will plant more garlic and sell the scapes. This year has been excellent for the garlic-the heads are 20 to 30% larger than last year.