Fresh herbs are only available for a limited time each year, which is why you should preserve your herbs. Here are 5 ways you can do it.
There are various ways to preserve fresh garden herbs for the winter months. To do this, you have to harvest most of the garden herbs completely just before the first frosts so that they can sprout again immediately in the coming spring.
Important:
You should always harvest or cut the herbs for preservation in the morning, immediately after the morning dew has dried. The advantage of this is that the plant can regenerate itself throughout the day and is only slightly affected by the cold that often prevails at night in autumn.
Once you have harvested all the herbs, you can try the following options for preserving the herbs.
Preserving herbs - 5 ways presented
Option 1 - Freeze:
You should freeze all types of herbs with soft leaves, such as parsley, chives, dill, etc. Harvest them fresh, wash them, dab them dry with kitchen paper and chop them up.
» Tip:
You shouldn't chop the mint to freeze it, though, because then it loses its aroma. Leave the mint leaves on the branches and freeze them whole in freezer bags.
You can of course determine the respective herb portion size individually. However, ice cube portions that can be removed individually are ideal. Put the freshly chopped herbs as loosely as possible in an ice cube tray and then fill it up with a little water. Put the bowl in the freezer and let the herbs freeze well.
Option 2 - Drying:
Drying herbs is always recommended when it comes to types of herbs that are later to be cooked in dishes, such as thyme, rosemary, oregano, marjoram, etc., or are used in a salad dressing. Only borage is not suitable for drying. You'd better freeze this herb.
To dry, you must harvest the herbs with as long stems as possible, wash them and carefully pat dry with kitchen paper. You can then bundle the herb stalks together and tie them together at the ends with kitchen twine. You should then store the bundles of herbs upside down in a warm, preferably dark room until they are completely dry after about 2 weeks. After this drying time, you can remove the bundles and store them in an opaque, closed container over the winter.
» Tip:
Dried herbs should never be chopped up immediately because they usually lose their aroma completely. Chopping always occurs when cooking!
Option 3 - Insert:
Of course you can also pickle the herbs in high-quality vinegar or good cooking oil. Here, however, you have to differentiate between whether the herbs are to be preserved or whether vinegar and oil are to be flavored with herbs.
To preserve herbs in vinegar or oil, you should use dried herbs - see drying process. Put them in a sealable glass jar and pour in just enough oil to just cover them. The type of cooking oil used in each case changes the typical herbal taste a little individually.
If, on the other hand, you fill the glass jar completely with oil and place it in a sunny window for a few days/weeks, you will get an excellent herbal oil for frying and refining salads. You can also achieve the same effect by pickling the herbs in vinegar. However, you must then keep the jars in a cool place so that the herbal aromas can penetrate the vinegar.
Option 4 - Make pesto:
Some herbs, including basil, are difficult to dry or freeze (they will turn brown). However, you can preserve these over the winter months in the form of pesto. To do this, simply proceed as follows:
Rinse the basil, pat dry and pluck off the leaves. Then roast the pine nuts in the pan, chop the garlic cloves (to taste) and dice the parmesan cheese. Put everything in a mortar together with sea s alt, crush well and then pour the mixture into a small glass. Now fill everything up with oil until you get a creamy paste.
It doesn't always have to be the classic basil pesto. For example, you can try a delicious coriander pesto recipe. There are even recipes forGoutweed pesto. Just experiment with some herbs.
Option 5 - Make herbal s alt:
Another variant of preserving herbs is the production of herb s alt. Here, too, there are two ways of preserving the herbs.
You can, for example, wash the fresh herbs, dab them briefly and chop them finely. Now add s alt (7 parts herbs, 1 part s alt). Then spread the mixture on baking paper to dry and dry in the oven at 40 °C for about an hour. Or let it air dry for about two days. Then you can fill the herbal s alt into glasses.
You can also grate or chop herbs, mix with plenty of s alt (mixing ratio 7 parts s alt, 1 part herbs) and fill in portions - e.g. in smaller, opaque boxes or in paper bags.
Here is a suitable video on the subject
By loading the video, you accept YouTube's privacy policy.
Learn more
Load video
Always Unblock YouTube
You might also be interested in:
» Harvest herbs correctly
» Plant herbs - how it works
» Create a herb garden - step by step instructions