preserving fresh herbs

totally pulled in a huge payload of herbs from my mom’s pots again. i usually try to be modest when i go out  to clip  her herbs, but this time, she had come to see us already with a bag in hand. clearly she’s got far too many herbs for the scope of cooking for just her and my dad, but it’s even too much for me and wil! i was astounded when opened the bag and started taking inventory of what stems had fallen under her knife (poor little plants). it also gave my a fleeting feeling of those who have successful home gardens…knowing there’s just so much coming up from the ground, you have to pick it and either eat it right then, or figure out a way to preserve it for later.

after finishing animal, vegetable, miracle, i still dream of our own future garden and what not, but even without one, the thoughts of enjoying what each season brings and knowing how to enjoy things out of season the right way (not via global transport) still linger in my mind. the pages of that book have been closed, the copy returned to the library, but the words still echo in my mind.

with september more than half over, winter fast approaching, and a new transition in our lives, it seemed fitting to utilize these herbs in a way that we can enjoy a month from now, without the worry of trying to use them right away before they spoil. we are busy. yes. i’d love to say i reap the benefits of wil’s newly trained culinary mind right now, but with multiple jobs, we see each other an hour or two a day, usually before we/i go to bed. days off together are limited, which means interesting meals have temporarily gone by the wayside.

also, with the lease on our current downtown apartment expiring, and our choice to not renew it, we are moving into a new place next week! everything about this whole situation was clearly orchestrated not by us, and everything fell perfectly into place…from a friend who happened to notice a nearby tenant moving out, to contacting the owner prior to it being listed, to us meeting, getting an ok on the dogs, to the rent and location being exactly what we needed and hoped for. we’ll be moving into a cute little ranch style duplex built in the 40′s…with all those type of things that we had previously traded for an urban lifestyle…lawn & courtyard, garage, space for a bbq, more storage, bigger kitchen, on a quiet, homey street across from a friend!

with moving as it is, we’ll be in shambles for the next two weeks. i should be packing stuff up right now, but no…i’m chopping herbs and dilly dallying on the internet! but with that said, the timing of getting all these free fresh herbs did line up with a few-week-period where i see us hardly cooking much.

so if you are like me…in a time of transition, or if you have an abundance of herbs with cold weather approaching, take advantage of your ice cube trays and freezer space! never doing this before, i went straight to one of my favorite books that wil acquired for his school. and anywhere it was vague on storing a particular herb, i hit the internet.

i don’t know if it’s a change in attitude or change in habit, but we just don’t use dried herbs much anymore. in a pinch or when it specifically calls for something dried (like soups or slow cooking), we’ve got it on hand, but otherwise, you just can’t beat fresh. but also paying 3 bucks for a dinky plastic container of a wilted bunch really irks me, so i am looking forward to having portioned frozen cubes on hand!

for ‘soft’ herbs, i chopped them up, and placed one tablespoon per cube in a clean ice cube tray (so i know how much i’m using when i pull it out at the time of cooking). i gently poured enough water into each spot only just to cover the herbs. this ended up being for: parsley, tarragon, cilantro, basil, chives. you can pulse your herbs in a food processor, but i just didn’t have the heart to not do the chopping by hand…felt more rewarding, and i also liked having more control over not overdoing it and creating herby mush. you can choose to freeze in olive oil instead of water, but i chose water as i didn’t know how i’d be using these herbs in my future cooking.

for ‘harder’ drier herbs, i came across a couple different methods…an online resource had me freeze rosemary as is, and a couple weeks from now, the frozen leaves can just shake off the stem (rather than taking the time to pull all the leaves off now), stored back in the freezer and used as needed, without chopping or water. my mom gave me two kinds of sage, so for one i simply hung to dry, and the other i placed the leaves in a ziploc without water, and without any air, similar to the rosemary.

there was just soooo much thyme, i got overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do with it! so, it got thrown back into the fridge with a damp paper towel until i get back around to it. : )