Summer Garlic Scape Pesto

In: accompaniments, recipes, season, summer

The idea to start a blog came to me about five years ago, when I was a sophomore in college. The problem was, I didn’t know what I wanted to blog about. At first (and this is embarrassing for me to admit), I wanted to blog about what it was like to be a “lady” in modern times. But then I realized that what I was doing was totally judgy and actually pretty awful, so I nixed that idea. Then, I wanted to have a blog about animal rights, inspired by the adoption of my own rescue pup. But being in college, I didn’t have the time to devote to animal rights activism that would warrant a blog. Then when I graduated from college, I wanted to start a blog about finding work/life balance (which is something I still struggle with!). But I wasn’t really inspired by that topic enough to write about it constantly.

Also, quick sidebar – if you graduate from college and start working full time, you know how hard it is to maintain hobbies / friendships / relationships. You have so much less time than in college. Fewer opportunities to meet people your age. And it’s really a time when you’re forced to figure out what’s important to you. Through this period of self-discovery, I turned to yoga for my body, mind, and soul. It became so important to me that I enrolled in the 200-hr yoga teacher training class (which is still ongoing), which inspired me to start a blog about yoga. However, I was really so much of a “student” (and still am) that I didn’t feel I could confidently write about yoga with any authority. So that blog idea was also eschewed.

But still the need to create, inspire, and share pervaded my thoughts. It was at this time I was transitioning to veganism from dairy-free vegetarianism, and began experimenting with food as I had always been wont to do. Then I found blogs such as Minimalist Baker, Faring Well, and The First Mess, which opened me up to a new world of delicious, vegan possibilities. And from there it just clicked! I felt like I had suddenly found my passion. Veganism as an ideology embodied everything I had stood for and loved in my entire life – animal rights, delicious food, environmentalism, and compassion (but not necessarily in that order!!).

But when I first started Well and Full, creating the recipes and taking the photos were my main priorities. But what I did not expect was to have such an amazing creative outlet in which to share my ideas. Which, I think is important to mention, is not something that is taken lightly in my life right now. I touched upon it a little in this post, but I’m still struggling with my career choice, and the continual feeling that I don’t have my life “figured out” yet. Having these doubts, along with some health issues I have been experiencing recently, have impacted my life in a painfully negative way. When you’re sick mentally and physically, having doubts about your life and your direction, it’s very hard to keep a positive frame of mind. Sometimes it’s hard to keep going at all. And especially knowing that I have so much to be grateful for – I am infinitely blessed – my mind has created these harmful feelings of guilt that have been extremely destructive in my day-to-day functioning. So I don’t think it is an exaggeration at all to say that Well and Full has helped me keep going.

Sometimes, when you feel like everything is going wrong – you’re continually messing up – you’ll never figure it out – there’s nothing left here for you – even the tiniest little thought can send a ray of sunshine through the seemingly impenetrable clouds. And, knowing that this sunshine is still there – it still exists! – can you start to see the path forward illuminated for you, even for just a few steps. Well and Full has been that tiny ray of light for me. And every single time one of you reach out and share a little bit of your experience, or even send a thoughtful comment, even if it’s just a few words – you are contributing your light and helping me see the way forward. For that, I can’t thank you enough.

But the funny thing is, for all of this soul-sharing I’ve done here, I’ve written very little about the actual food I’ve been presenting! This recipe here is a delicious (if I do say so myself) pesto made from garlic scapes, which are actually the stems of the garlic plant. While they do taste garlicky, it’s a very verdant and fresh taste that is a special treat during the summer months! This pesto would work great in a salad or combined with chickpeas to make hummus, but I served them on little slices of ancient grain bread as toasts!