Preserving Herbs from the Garden

Preserving herbs from the garden is a great way to enjoy your harvest well into the winter months when you are craving something fresh.

When we purchased our first house that had some land, I fell in love with herbs. I had such a wide variety of thyme, basil, oregano, sage, and many more. I used them in crafting and very often in my cooking.

When summer came to an end, I wanted to find ways to keep all these wonderful plants that I grew so that I could use them during the winter. I knew that they would die back in the fall, and I wanted to make sure I utilized them in some way.

More Ideas about Herb Gardening: How to Use Herbs from the Garden......11 Herb Gardens.....Herbal Infusions

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Preserving Herbs

I like to dry most of my herbs when preserving them for cooking. It's easy, and they look pretty too. However, some do better if you freeze them instead.

Air Drying Herbs

One of the easiest ways to preserve fresh herbs is to dry them. You can buy or create a simple Herb Drying Rack and hang your herbs upside down on it. I also like using an old window screen with the herbs laid out in a single layer, in a dark, dry place like a basement or attic.

I haven't tried them, but others say that you can also dry herbs in a low-temperature oven for a couple of hours, use a dehydrator, or gently dry a few stems between paper towels in the microwave with short blasts.

Once dry, you can crush them slightly and bottle them in small jars or any airtight containers with a good seal to keep out excess moisture.

For a temporary fix, you may like this wonderful Herb Savor Gadget my daughter bought me for Christmas. It keeps herbs fresh in the refrigerator for weeks. I love it for the times I need to harvest a bunch at the end of the season before a frost. Or if I end up buying a large bunch of something like parsley from the store and don't need to use it right away.

Some herbs do not dry well at all. Chives and cilantro are two that just don't work well with the drying method. However, freezing these herbs works pretty well.

Freezing Herbs

You can easily freeze both chives and cilantro in ice cube trays. This ice cube tray set comes with lids to help with odors.

Clean and chop them up. Fill each section with as many herbs as you can. Then pour water or olive oil over the herbs to fill each section. I like to use olive oil because most of the time I'm going to use the oil in my cooking anyway. However, melted butter can be great too.

Here I've used olive oil on one side and water on the other.

After the cubes are set, you can pop them out and place them in plastic bags for easy access. This saves space in the freezer and frees up the ice cube trays for preserving more herbs.

These frozen little herb cubes will come in handy to drop in soups and sauces, adding great flavor to any dish.

These are just a few ways to keep the full flavor of your herbs for later use. This will help you save money, and you can feel good knowing that you have grown them yourself.