Green Garlic

If you've never had green garlic (a.k.a. garlic scapes), you MUST go and find some right now. Granted, I love garlic and put it in most of the recipes I make, but I would still recommend green garlic to just about anyone. As you can read in the description from www.wisegeek.com below, green garlic has a much more milder flavor than your average garlic...

Green garlic is young garlic which is harvested before the cloves have begun to mature. The resulting vegetable resembles a scallion, with a deep green stalk and a pale white bulb.

When garlic is grown normally, it is harvested when the lower part of the stalk visible above the ground starts to turn brown. The bulb of the garlic has differentiated into garlic cloves, and it is cured so that it will last in storage. Typically, garlic is harvested in the middle of summer. Green garlic, on the other hand, is harvested before the plant is mature. The stalks are still totally green, usually around one foot (30 cm) long, and the bulb resembles that of a green onion, rather than a segmented head of garlic.

The flavor of green garlic is still garlicky, but is much more mild with less of a bitter bite. When cooked, the green garlic sweetens, lending a new layer of depth to a dish.