Siswan's post about the garlic reminded me

[csziggy]

This year for the first time in nearly forty years I'm growing herbs. Our old house location got far too shady and damp under the trees for herbs to do well. The new house has raised terraces along the east and south side and so far our herbs are doing great.

We have English thyme, garden sage, prostrate rosemary, oregano, lemon thyme, tarragon, fennel, lemon grass, and African blue basil, plus lots of various kinds of salvia/sage (pineapple sage, indigo spires salvia, mystic spires salvia), all of which are supposed to be edible. I also planted some edible ginger and turmeric but my husband ignored my warnings about buying supermarket roots and they had been treated and didn't sprout. Next year...

Anyway, what is the best way to preserve the leafy herbs? I'm thinking I might need to get a food dryer thing since I have never had success at freezing fresh leafy herbs. Once dried I can separate the stems, and chop up the leaves to go into my spice jars.

Drying is what is recommended for ginger and turmeric, but I've had good success at freezing the roots and microplaning enough off the solid frozen root as I need it.

The fennel is mostly for caterpillar food - there are butterflies whose caterpillars love fennel - but I might dig the roots. Right now at least one of the fennel plants is blooming - will that affect the roots or should I give up on fennel for this year and plant more next year?

I've never used lemongrass for cooking so I'm looking forward to trying it. I understand that the roots are what are cooked with and the leaves can be used for tea?

Any help would be great!

[elleng]

1. prostrate rosemary, REALLY???

Glad your garden's growing well.

[dem in texas]

2. Air dry the leafy herbs

I hammered some nails into a shelf in our garage. picked stems of herbs such as basil, sage, thyme, tied in small bunches with thread and hung upside down from the nails until dry; didn't take long, maybe 2 or 3 weeks. Then stripped off leaves which I crushed and put in bottles and jars. Also did some Joe Parker chilies this way.

I'm too old to garden anymore, sure miss my herb garden and all the fresh veggies. We built raised beds because we live on limestone rock (White Rock Escarpment which is in Southwest Dallas County) Gardening was a challenge, but lots of enjoyment.

[csziggy]

3. Here in Florida I can't dry them outside - they would just get moldy

And I don't have a good place to dry them inside - no where to hang from the very high ceilings. I thought about setting up my baking racks and laying the herbs out on them, but the cats would mess with them, probably. I suspect one of the little dehydrators would be just right. That would dry them quicker and keep the cats out.

I'm too old to garden, really, but we hired a guy to do most of the planting and I found a small company that is coming in once a month to weed. Since we had to get the beds around the house planted after remodeling, it seemed a good opportunity to have a "kitchen" garden with herbs and the rest is planted with mostly native plants to attract birds, butterflies, and bees. Plus the flowers look great and cheer me up when I am frustrated with life. And I get to see the creatures that also love them.

[Kali]

4. *cough* we used to dry a certain herb in the microwave

have to watch closely, but it seemed to work for that particular plant

some stuff you can just freeze alone (basil won't look pretty but better frozen than dried, I freeze it whole all the time) or blend with oil and freeze, as you noticed ginger freezes great - I would think better than drying even.

[csziggy]

5. Hmmm, never tried microwaving , ahem, herbs

That might be worth testing out!

I kind of hate getting another specialized appliance but in the articles I read about drying ginger, it took days in the oven or in the dehydrator. I wouldn't want my oven on, even at the lowest setting, for days! Plus, for ginger and turmeric you have to slice the tubers before you dry them then grind them up afterwards, which means it's labor intensive and messy.

I just checked and it seems herbs will dry in the oven at the lowest temperature in two to four hours. That's probably my best bet. I'm much more used to dealing with dried herbs than frozen ones, plus it's easier to measure them when either dried or fresh.

[Kali]

6. well my skin may be like a lizard most of the year

but I can dry a bunch of parsley in a day

[Kali]

7. basil and cilantro are two herbs that don't dry well

they lose all their flavor, cilantro especially. basil is ok but so much more flavorful fresh or frozen.

of course you can probably just grow it all year round anyway cant you?

[csziggy]

8. We get good freezes here in North Florida some winters

Most of the salvias for instance are considered "tender perennials" - the leaves will die back but the plants will come back from the roots a lot of years. I'm not sure about the herbs at all since I haven't consistently grown them for so long.

Maybe if I mix fresh herbs with something that will freeze well and made herbal "ice cubes" that would work. Then I could pull out "measured" amounts and add to things.

I thought about making herb infused oils but they really don't last all that long.

I think I will have to experiment - and I will try to post the results when I do.

[Kali]

9. ah, my geographical ignorance strikes again

I know there were occasional freak freezes in Florida, but was under the impression it was really rare. olive oil pretty much freezes solid and lots of people do the ice cubes with that and basil for sure.

[csziggy]

10. My place is only ten miles from the Georgia line

So think of south Georgia weather here. Some winters we don't get much below freezing, like this past winter, but we get hard freezes down to 22 F or so, enough we have to drain the barn and leave the house pipes dripping. We had one year when it got to 8 F - froze everything hard and it took several days to thaw out.

OK, so freezing herbs in olive oil would work? That sounds good.