Whipping Scapes into Shape

Lately I have been obsessed with three special items in our garden (well, four if you count rhubarb - except that it does not grow here, so...).  I am talking about currants, raspberries, and garlic scapes. 

I was satisfied with the cup of red currants that we harvested from our new currant bushes but I was over the moon when Ms. Sue (the lady who gifted us the bushes) invited the boys and I over to harvest some of her currants.  She indicated that she had a few too many.  We showed up with a 2 L strawberry basket.  She looked at us and said, "That just won't do." and handed over a huge white bucket.  She pointed us at a cluster of currant bushes, lifted up a branch and...holy cow!

Her mature bushes were just loaded with currants in various stages of ripeness.  I picked currants for an hour while Liam and Seamus explored Ms. Sue's garden and Ali sat in his car seat and worked on a poop.  What a haul (yes, of both red currants and baby poop)!

Tomorrow I will clean the currants up and freeze them in 1 cup quantities.  This should keep us in red currant scones for the entire winter.  Now, if I could just perfect my scones...

On the farmstead, we also dedicated some time today to raspberry picking.  We are in prime raspberry time and we are all loving it.  Our bushes are loaded and every time we go outside there are more berries ready to eat. 

Harvesting them is a race against the clock (or perhaps against the kids is more accurate) since any berries that the boys find go directly into their mouths instead of inside the bowl.  Luckily there are still some parts of the bushes that they cannot reach yet - until they figure out to get a stool.  Shhh...don't tell them!

While red currant and raspberry picking occupied the bulk of our day, I carved out some time after the kids went to bed to test out a new garlic scape aioli recipe.  I love making things that seem so difficult but in reality are super easy to make.  Mayonnaise is one of those things.  With only four ingredients, it is so incredibly easy and fast to make that it is a wonder that we buy prepared mayo.

Recipe: Garlic Scape Aioli

2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp table salt
1 whole egg
1 cup light olive oil

2 garlic scapes (finely minced)

Let all the ingredients settle in a wide mouth mason jar.  Use the immersion blender to mix for about 30 seconds.

I made extra so this will be the bonus item in my CSA baskets tomorrow.  Too bad my potatoes are not ready yet; how delicious would it be to dip fresh cut french fries into this?!  Or slather it on a fresh tomato sandwich?  Come on garden - hurry up!