Garlic scapes - preserving and enjoying

I am finally self sustaining with garlic.  Three years ago I planted my first garlic bulbils, the little tiny bulbs that grow from the flower stalk, and last fall that first batch was planted to make this years harvestable garlic.

With 3 years of garlic stages in the garden, I have a lot of scapes this year. A whole bushel full in fact.

The first thing I do is freeze them.  I freeze some in short lengths to be blended into sauces. I break off the woody ends, just as you would do with asparagus - bend the end and if there is any tough end it will break off at that point. I also remove the blossoms.

Most gets chopped finely and frozen in small blobs.  I use the whole scapes for this.

Then the blobs can be used in sauce, on pasta, into a scape pesto, or anything else where you want a mild garlic flavour with no effort.

For fresh use, I tried grilling them this year.  I brushed olive oil and kosher salt on them and barbecued them on a grilling pan. They have a texture similar to asparagus, with a mild garlic flavour - delicious!