Yesterday I cut off all the scapes from the garlic plants in my garden. This is done so the plants put their entire energy into the bulbs.

Garlic scapes are delicious but I can use only that many at a time. No reason to discard the rest, though! The chopped scapes are a great addition to soups, stir fries and other dishes so I freeze them.

I chop the stalks in the food processor (only briefly, otherwise it becomes a pulp), pack them into ice-cube trays, and put them in the freezer. Once they are solidly frozen, I carefully remove them from the ice-cube trays and put them in freezer bags. I double-bag them so the garlicky cubes don’t give off their smell to the other freezer contents. If the scapes are already very long and advanced, I also cut off the hard, fibrous ends. The part of the stalk that breaks easily in two is tender enough to eat.

As for cooking with fresh scapes, see my recipes here.