How To: Preserve Your Herbs!

If I were an herb, I would want to be rosemary. It’s pretty, smells good and is pest-resistant. Not to mention it comes from the Latin words ros marinus aka dew of the sea. In many locations it needs no other water than the humidity carried by the sea breeze to live. Sounds nice right! Okay, enough about me. There is nothing like growing and cooking with your own herbs. I can almost guarantee what you’re serving will suddenly taste magical. This past summer was a learning experience for myself; filled with trial and error, sunshine and rain. I went from taking care of a small potted herb garden to being the official caretaker of a farms worth of herbs at Fresh & Fancy Farms.

And with summer at its end and herbs on their last life, storing them seems like a wonderful option!  I am going to give you a few tips on how to store your herbs so you can enjoy them year round.

Oh and we’re going to keep it simple, because simple is good. You will do one of two things with your herbs, hang dry or freeze. Hang drying works best for herbs that don’t have high moisture content (oregano, rosemary, thyme). For moisture dense herbs (basil, chives, mint, sage) using a dehydrator or freezing them is best.

DRY

1. Cut your herbs. Check them out and make sure you’re not selecting anything that doesn’t look up to par – no mold, dry spots, or signs of disease.

2. Wash them and let them dry really well. You don’t want any mold growing.

3. Remove lower leaves from the bottom of the branch/stem.

4. Bundle and secure your herbs together using string, wire, binder clips, etc.

5. Hang them in a dry, warm (not humid) place for about two weeks.

6. Store in labeled and dated zip lock bag or mason jar.

FREEZE

1. Follow steps 1&2

2. Chop up your moisture dense herb and place 1/3 in an ice cube tray and fill the remainder with water.

3. Once frozen throw them into a large labeled and dated zip lock bag.

4. You can also take the whole leaf and store them in zip lock bag – that works too!