This was the first year for our little garden at our new house. We had a rather large garden for many years, plus a separate herb garden. None the less, the few herbs I planted produced abundantly, as did the tomatoes, sweet green peppers, lettuce and spinach! Truth be told, my husband is the gardener, but I can take a “little” credit…
I planted basil, parsley and my favorite, marjoram. I also planted chives, however, we sort of forgot about them as the tomato plants took over and hid them. Oh, and I don’t want to forget my spearmint. It went into a flower pot on the patio so it would not spread, and was used all summer for Mojitos! In the past, I used to dry herbs. I carefully washed them, tied rubber bands (gum bands if you are from Pittsburgh as I am…) around bunches, and hung them to dry on sturdy drying racks. However, I am so spoiled by the better taste of fresh herbs, that I lost interest over the years in drying them.
This year, with our abundant crop, we enjoyed fresh herbs all summer. I even made a couple batches of pesto with the basil. I froze little cubes in these nifty silicone cookie freezer trays that I purchased from King Arthur Baking. (I see they have discontinued the ones I got (hmmm…), but they do have a different kind. You can also find them on Walmart and Amazon websites. Really, old-fashioned plastic ice cube trays would work too, but I kind of like the silicone ones. Once frozen, I popped out the little cubes and stored them in zip lock freezer bags. I made a batch with those EXPENSIVE little pine nuts, and a batch with walnuts. Both smell and taste wonderful!
So after my success with the pesto, I decided to research “freezing” herbs. My norm is to educate myself as much as I can, then combine the techniques that I think will work best for me. I learned about –
- freezing herbs on cookie sheets,
- freezing herbs in water,
- and freezing herbs in olive oil.
First, the marjoram! As I stated above, this is my favorite herb. My mother-in-law introduced me to marjoram. It adds a nice flavor to roast beef and roast pork. And I tend to use it instead of oregano, which I find a bit strong. After washing and drying it, I removed the leaves from the stems, put a tablespoon or so in each cube, and filled the cubes about 3/4 full with olive oil. Lid on and into the freezer; that’s it!
I had so much marjoram left, I decided to try freezing on cookie trays. Marjoram leaves are so tiny that they did not take long to freeze. I scooped them up, and stored in freezer bags.
On to the parsley! I use parsley in lots of things; my favorite being buttered parsley potatoes. After washing and spinning dry, I pulled the parsley off the stems and chopped. I love my Zyliss Easy Spin salad spinner and my Warther knives! My thoughtful step-daughters have been gifting us Warther knives for years!
I used the same technique chosen for the marjoram – a tablespoon or so in each cube, and filled the cubes about 3/4 full with olive oil. Lid on and into the freezer.
Again, lots of parsley left. This time, rather than freezing on cookie trays, I just put some in a zip lock freezer bag. I have done this before with parsley, and it lasts quite a while.
Now basil is a little trickier. I love it’s wonderful peppery smell. I have a really good basil chicken recipe. But basil does not keep well once picked, as it darkens quickly. I waited to pick until I was ready to process. I pulled off only the best remaining leaves – no yellowing, no little holes in the leaves. As I said earlier, I’ve been harvesting from this basil plant all summer, and it is now October!
Next, I very GENTLY washed the basil leaves, and then gave them a quick spin or two in my spinner. You can see how much water I was able to remove.
I like to cut basil in “slivers”. I roll 6 or 8 leaves, then “slice” them.
For the basil, I decided to try freezing in water. I filled a silicone cube tray half way with water, put about a tablespoon of basil in each cube, then put into the freezer.
Once frozen, I filled the tray about 3/4’s full with more water, and returned to the freezer.
Not wanting to waste any basil left, I decided to give it a try freezing it on a tray. I was amazed at how it still had its lovely bright green color after freezing this way! I gently put the crisp, frozen leaves in to a zip lock bag.
We are getting ready to fill the freezer with beef, pork and chicken, so I was glad to get this done! I will report back in a few months to let you know how these frozen herbs compare to fresh and dried herbs. In the mean time, if you need any herbs (marjoram, parsley or basil), I am pretty sure I have more than I will need!
Marjoram is my favorite herb, too! I never thought of freezing my n olive oil, I will have to try that!
Let me know your results!
Thank you for sharing, I will give a try next year because I do not have fresh herbs anymore.
Another way To enjoy herbs!