Drying and freezing herbs

by Deidre Woollard, Posted Sep 2nd 2005 @ 10:07AM

It's the time of year to think about preserving the fragrant bounty of herbs in the garden. The Detroit Free Press has a piece on which herbs can be frozen and which ones need to be dried. According to Jean Riggs of the Sunshine Farm and Garden rosemary, sage and thyme can be dried or frozen. Tarragon, chives and oregano do well in the freezer but basil and cilantro, which have a high water content can get mushy when frozen. She also talks about how to dry herbs. Herbs can be air-dried in bunches or bag dried by tying a paper bag around the bunch and cutting holes in the side. The article also recommends doing what we should all do with basil at the end of the summer, make batches and batches of pesto and then freeze it for the basil-less months ahead. The same can also be done with cilantro although when I make cilantro pesto I swap out the pine nuts for walnuts.

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Filed Under: Newspapers
Tags: basil, cilantro, herbs, pesto, rosemary, thyme