h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Harvesting and Preserving Herbs - A1918938
Author: _Mina_ (Guru ACE Sub PR FR) - U94986

Just a little osmething I knocked together while the dinner was cooking the dinner.

I've included a sentance or two of a few different periods of history as an introduction. If this doesn't really work I can remove it.

I haven't had time to put in any links, but I'll add some over the next week. In the meantime, suggestions welcome.

Hi Mina

Great! A food entry

I love the idea of preserving herbs. They are a fantastic kitchen resource, and the medicinal stuff is fascinating. I welcome this entry: it's a great start.

A definition of a herb might be useful: OED says

Could you perhaps include some examples of herbs, when you talk about perennials/annuals, those with essential oils, those that lose flavour when dried?

You mention witches, but shamans, druids and many other spiritual members of communities have used herbs (and roots, which aren't strictly herbs) to induce trances and visions. But these folk have also traditionally used them for healing.

In my experience, freezing herbs preserves the flavour a whole lot better than drying. I've stored mint, tarragon, sage, thyme, rosemary and marjoram for well over a year in the freezer, without any discernable deterioration in condition or flavour.

If you freeze chopped-up herbs in ice-cube trays, you need to add water too!


F/b

Thanks for your comments. Shame no-one else was interested. I'll do some tweaks tomorrow.

Hi Mina

Don't write off anybody else just yet. You never know who might be lurking out there!

I look forward to seeing the amendments.


F/b

Sorry, I've still been on my sickbed, but I am intending to do the tweaks to this. I'm much better behaved in PR than this when I'm not . I might get a chance a bit later, but if not then I *will* do it tomorrow if not. Sorry about this.

Oh dear Mina

Get better soon. Any needed, or just lots of ?

Look after yourself.


F/b

Oh no, not the nose again, I hope? We have similar problems: 'noses' run in our family

This is a great article. I've always wondered what to do with the 'sage forest' and the 'rosemary mountain'. However, rosemary being evergreen, you can just go out and yank some off the plant, which is nice. If you can give me a really good way of preserving basil, then I could make us of that.

Get well soon

FM

Hi FM

I preserve basil 2 ways:

1. Pick leaves, put in an airtight bag and freeze. The leaves come out droopy of course, but are fine for flavouring salads, sauces, vinagrettes.

2. Make basil into pesto, then freeze it . Pesto is mostly basil, some garlic, olive oil, s&p, pinenuts. All blended together. You can add sun-dried tomatoes or nuts; leave out the garlic - whatever takes your fancy really. I love it mixed with pasta, added to a vinagrette for a salad, mixed into the tomato base mix for pizza.

Any help?


Frenchbean

Two thoughts:
Does anyone know what you can do with coriander?
In terms of storage, how would you rate an airtight metal contender.

Container, even...

I used to like drying herbs in the airing cupboard as it makes your clothes smell faintly herby. Unfortunately my new house doesn't have an airing cupboard and I haven't yet established the garden so I won't have any herbs for ages.

I didn't know that light can cause herbs to loose their flavour. Is this true for supermarket bought dried herbs e.g. jars of Schwartz herbs, or just for those dried at home?

You can dry slices of lemon in the fridge, so it might also work for wet herbs like Basil. I'll experiment!

Very nice article, I enjoyed it.

Bronners

Ah - finally an entry that I know something about.

As has been mentioned, the lack of examples does concern me, but I appreciate that to go through all the herbs would take too much space.

Some herbs do lose a lot of their flavour when preserved by you methods, Mina; namely: mint, basil, parsley and chervil. Both coriander and chives are decidedly mediocre when freeze-dried too. However some, like tarragon, actually improve in flavour.

In reply to some of the above, I wouldn't bother preserving basil. It starts to lose its flavour about an hour after it's picked. Making pesto and freezing it is OK, but freezing tends to do odd stuff to olive oil from which it never really recovers.

B

Hi Mina,

another nice entry - up to your usual high standard

Just one thing - how about defining exactly what a herb (an herb?) is? Is it always a leaf, or can it be a stem. But never the root or seeds?


Awu

Nice one Mina
I do like the opening but it seems to beg for other entries on the uses of herbs throughout the ages...

I've tried both these methods at various times and found plenty of flavour remained in the oregano left to dry spread our on top of the fridge in a warmish, dryish spot. For freezing, I've tried the "chop the leaves, pack in ice cube trays and pour water over" method which does work well too, but if you forget the water I can vouch that you end up with little frozen herb leaves migrating through every drawer in the freezer!
Is drying the only way to deal with seeds (eg saved coriander seeds)? Doesn't seem to me there'd be a need to freeze them but I'm a novice here.

Right, I've had a quick whizz through in my lunch break.

I've added a definition of a herb as a footnote, added that some herbs should only be used fresh, and added that ice-cubes trays should be used with water.

I still haven't added any examples, because I use herbs for drinking/medicinal my knowledge is very limited. The entry does look as if it needs them - I avoided them because I always avoid examples in my entries about plants, there are too damn many! As some of you seem to know about a wider range of herbs than I do, I'll add them if anyone wants to give me a couple of examples. I already added basil in as not being worth preserving.

Does nobody love me?

I love you, Mina, even if no-one else does.

Yoo-hoo, Mister Scouty-Wouty, there's a nice fragrant pick going here.

FM (recovering from the EM Mini-meet, oh God my head hurts...)

I think you might not have very long to wait

Oh, and although I'm not the one responsible, I love you too, Mina

awww, thanks.