Growing Herbs for Freezing
I like to cook with fresh herb plants. Don’t you? The flavor is wonderful and the aroma is always inspiring. It’s simple to use fresh herbs too. You can always snip off what you need and mix in with the rest of your ingredients for a fresh flavor you’ll love.
How do you survive in the middle of winter when there aren’t fresh herb plants around?
Freezing is much better for an herb than drying and it’s much easier. In three steps you can store them for future dishes—grow your herbs, harvest them and freeze your herbs. It is not important to chop them before you freeze them. Even after they are frozen, you will not have to chop them to use them.
Some folks chop their herb plants and freeze them in ice cube trays. Just fill each compartment of the ice cube tray almost to the top with diced chives or whatever other plant you want to freeze and add water. Put these cubes into the freezer bags and later, when you are ready toss a few cubes into your soups, stews and other dishes.
If you want to try freezing herbs, these are some great ones to start with:
- Basil: Once you harvest your basil, slice the stem just before the buds, remove the leaves and dry them. Put the dried leaves into a jar so that you can make use of your herbs in the future. You can also skip the drying out part and stick your herbs straight away into the freezer. You can even put them in a container and cover them with oil, which will bring out the taste. You can keep your herbs this way for several months.
- Parsley: It is not just a pretty garnish; you can use parsley in any Italian meal. Parsley will work well in almost any Italian dish. Nobody appreciates parsley for it’s positive attributes. It can’t help it if the other Italian herbs (like oregano, basil and garlic) have stronger, more memorable flavors. Parsley works hard to help other herbs taste better. Mix it into any dish (usually near the end of the cooking process) and parsley will make the rest of the herbs that much better. I put leaves in a freezer bag and lay it flat until it’s frozen, usually by putting something on top of my bags for a few days in the freezer. When you are ready to use them, just crunch the bag up in your hand and they’re instantly chopped.
- French Tarragon: Harvest sprigs of this wonderful herb throughout the summer, but stop in early fall so that you do not damage the plant. Of course it’s better to use the leaves fresh, but you can tuck some of these leaves into a freezer bag and they will get you through the winter months. Add them to your chicken or fish dishes. It also goes well with cream sauces, vinegars and mustards.
Once you put the herb plants in the freezer bag, write the name of the plant on the outside of the bag and the date so that you will be able to tell similar herb plants apart.
Good luck with your herb gardening. Be sure to let me know how your herb garden grows.
Here is more information on Italian Herb Garden. Here is a website with a free mini-course dedicated to Herb Gardens.
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