Escape II and Scapes I

A couple weeks back in the Escape post, I completely forgot the best volunteer escapee of the spring. Last spring I crew a late & crowded bed of Simpson lettuce in one of the alley beds. Apparently, as has recently become habit, I left some plants to go to seed as the season ended.
Two plants, twins maybe, sprouted among the chickweed immediately adjacent this (now) garlic & shallot bed and have taken root nicely in spite of my complete lack of attention to them. Mrs cohutt has cut a few small leaves off along the way and they still have done well.

The panorama of the bed of garlic with the Simpson twins in the front:

Closer, with my watch in the picture for scale:

I can’t grow lettuce this large and full when I try- I think nature is telling me something. Yeah, whatever….as a reward for their effort, I’m going to eat these for dinner later in the week.

But what about the scapes?

Last night after dusk but before dark:30, I thought I spotted a scape among the shallots in this same bed. This evening I investigated and sure enough, there were scapes emerging from several shallot plants in every bed.

One was a little out of control (?)

After a quick check I find that shallot scapes are common when shallots are set out in the fall (as these were). I also find a long list of recipes incorporating the scapes and a couple even for the flowers.

So I’ll let them fatten up a bit more and then start harvesting them for spicy additions to salads and future stir fry experiments.

In the meantime the tornado siren has started going off as this front is kicking us in the teeth so I’m gonna cut this one short. (Apologies for the lack of proofing. )