Preserving Herbs from Your Home Garden

                        
For those of you who were on their game this summer, you might have herbs still ready for harvest. For the rest of us…they’ve already gone to seed and are a regular stopping point for the bees in the neighborhood. Nonetheless, there are some exceptions and even the lazy gardener can still benefit from harvesting and storing herbs for use this fall and winter. Some herbs, like basil can be harvested from the time the plant is large enough to spare a few leaves until the arrival of the first frost. When flower buds appear pinch them off. Be diligent, the plant wants to flower and once it does the leaves become pungent and no new ones will grow. Preserving basil is difficult. It doesn’t dry well as it loses its wonderful flavor when the oils are not fresh. Freezing it turns it black and rather scary looking. Freezing freshly chopped basil in olive oil in the freezer is an option. Basil, however will root if cuttings are placed in water. Keeping it growing on the kitchen windowsill is worth the effort. Other ways to make the fresh taste of basil last are by making pesto, a delicious concoction of basil leaves, nuts, olive oil and cheese. Pesto can be added to soups, sandwiches, pastas or salads. Pesto freezes well. Basil can also be used to flavor oils and vinegars for later use in cooking. Sage is one herb that will go to seed but not until late in the season. I have harvested it when there is snow on the ground. Sage is a perennial and even in an Ohio climate will survive winter, reseed and be waiting for you this spring to transplant the new seedlings. When harvesting sage pick the leaves in early morning after the dew has dried but before the sun is too hot. Tie in small bundles and hang upside down in a room, barn, breeze way or closet with plenty of ventilation and little light. Sage will dry in a week or two depending on conditions. Store dried sage in airtight jars. If they are not opaque keep them out of direct light to preserve the color. Dill is an annual but it reseeds year after year when a few plants are permitted to go to seed. The nice thing about dill is it actually has two harvests, one being the delicate leaves that are best when the plant is young and has not quite flowered, the other being the seeds that develop after the flowers have dried on the plant. The leaves are best fresh served over potatoes or in soups. The leaves will keep for a few days in the fridge but I don’t recommend trying to preserve it. The seeds, on the other hand, are quite a different story. They dry well, last a long time and can be used in pickling, in breads or biscuits and are extremely flavorful long after harvest. Tie bundles upside down and attach a paper bag. As the dill seeds dry they will fall into the paper bag and be ready for storage in airtight jars. Rosemary is easy to freeze or dry, stores well and is useful in cooking. Rosemary is a like or hate herb, however. Some people love it and believe it enhances the flavor of meat and vegetables. Other people believe it tastes like a Christmas tree smells and want it as far away from the kitchen as possible. When choosing to grow rosemary for cooking, choose wisely. Do you really like it or do you just need something to fill up the space between the broccoli and chard? And do you even like broccoli and chard? Investing in an electric dehydrator is smart when you grow many herbs for preserving. It speeds up the drying process and doesn’t have nearly the scare factor as a microwave. I don’t care what Martha Stewart says, the microwave is not the 21st. century’s drying rack…the electric dehydrator, on the other hand…just might be. If you know you are going to be using chopped herbs in your cooking, chop them finely and put them in ice cube trays, fill with water. The next time you need a tablespoon or two of fresh herbs pull out a few cubes and add them to your sauce, soup or sauté pan. Aren’t you glad you grew herbs this year?


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