It's no secret that I have I completely Admire Andrea Bemis of Dishing Up the Dirt. She runs a farm with her husband in the PNW and girl has some AMAZING recipes featuring veggies from her farm. Reading her blog has educated me on preparing a host of rarely used produce like kohlrabi, turnips, parsnips and fennel.

One of the first recipes on her blog that caught my eye was for grilled garlic scapes. It was just after I had developed a fascination for the curly creations when my Instagram feed was flooded them last June. I had never seen anything like them before and their strange loops and pointed tip immediately grabbed my fascination.

Garlic Scapes are the stalk that grows up from a garlic bulb. The scapes are removed to encourage the garlic plant to put energy into forming a larger bulb rather than into growing the stalk. They have a milder garlic flavor (less sharp and less spicy) and can be used in anything from herbed butters and spreads, to salad toppings, or sautéed in a dish in place of garlic.

Despite the fact that I paused every time I came across a photo them, I never encountered any at the grocery store or local farmer's market (they have a very short June season), so I did an internal backflip when Megan and I stumbled across some at whole foods and a few days later when they came in my CSA pick up.

Inspired by Andrea's method of simply grilling them up in a dish all to their own, here is my version, with a lemon zest and shaved parmesan.