The Roving Locavore

scapes bin at the Norwich Farmers' Market

I love garlic mashed potatoes.  Possibly even more delicious are mashed potatoes made with garlic scapes.  Last night, I boiled about a pound of new red and gold potatoes (skin on).  I tossed four curlicues of garlic scapes (1 per person) into the boiling water for a minute, just to soften them up a bit.  Then I roughly diced and minced them.  When the potatoes were fork tender, I used a hand-masher to blend in the scapes, milk, 2 tbs. of butter, salt and pepper.  The result was delicious, and as pretty as a pile of potatoes can be: creamy white flecked with green and pink, and tasting of the freshest garlic.  I love whole roasted bulbs of garlic, with that deep nutty caramelized flavor, mashed into potatoes.  This was different.  Garlicky, but greener, grassier, springy.

The only problem was that I made too few.  Everyone wanted more potatoes.