Mystery Ingredient #1: Garlic Scapes

While exploring the topic of nutrition, it seemed appropriate to expand my horizons a little and try some new things. This post is the first of a series I will title Mystery Ingredients where I choose an ingredient I have never eaten before and then figure out what to do with it.

While at a local farmer's market, I spotted baskets with long curly green things in them that were labeled garlic scapes. They were, in my opinion, the weirdest looking things I had seen all day. I had to buy them.

Excerpt from conversation between me (M) and the farmer (F):

M: So, uh, what exactly do people do with these?
F: What? Oh, is this your first time?
(Clearly, these garlic scapes were serious stuff.)
M: Yup.
F: Ok, well you need to cut the end off - the flower - because it's bitter. Like this (he demonstrated). Then, chop it up. You can either use them in a salad just like that, or toss some into an omelette. Delicious! Just toss the paper bag in the fridge, and it'll keep for a couple weeks. Enjoy!

I took his advice.

However, I felt like just making an omelette and a plain salad was getting of the hook easy for a Mystery Ingredient post, so I also prepared a garlic soup. Original recipe can be found here.
I made the following modifications (based on what was in my kitchen and my dairy intolerance):
-regular organic garlic instead of the green garlic in the recipe (I don't even know what green garlic is)
-coconut oil instead of butter
-dry instead of fresh thyme
-water with celery seed, marjoram, oregano, sage, and a bay leaf instead of broth
-coconut milk instead of dairy milk

The farmer was right - delicious!