Preserve Herbs At Their Peak For Year- Long Enjoyment

So many flavors, so many exciting ways to make them last

---

Hello there! I am seeing a LOT of new readers and followers right now and I wanted to take a moment to say welcome! The Naturalized Human brings together the science and human experience of the mind-body-food connection. I want to empower everyone to take a vested interest in their food, where it comes from, and how to use it effectively for wellness. I encourage you to subscribe if you’re interested in changing your relationship with food by understanding your mind and body better, and interacting with a group of like-minded souls on the same journey.

---

Good food and herbs go hand in glove. It’s hard to imagine great ceviche without cilantro, spaghetti without basil and oregano, or a savory roasted chicken without rosemary and thyme (for the omnivores and carnivores among us).

Herbs are extraordinary in the garden for so many reasons. One simple brush by them can light up your entire nervous system with feel good hormones by triggering your sense of smell, which most powerfully holds onto memories. Dill is my favorite herb for this feat of dopamine release for me, and I love few things more than having some dill randomly growing around my garden just waiting to catch my sleeve and brighten my day.

Aside from their ability to transform our gardening time with memories, herbs support a broad range of native pollinators when they flower. Most are easy to grow, even for a novice gardener. And perennial herbs can take a lot of abuse and still come back year after year. It’s little wonder that dill smelled in the garden reminds me of my kitchen and dill smelled in the kitchen reminds me of my garden.

The catch with herbs is that their peak flavor can be short, at least for some of them. That’s why learning how to preserve them is totally worth the effort.

And while my go-to method for decades has simply been to dry them, I am learning so many new and exciting ways to keep those delicious scents wafting longer. Here is some of what I have found in my search to better take advantage of the herbs in my garden.

7 ways to preserve summer herbs

So many flavors and combinations to choose from! (Source: Sue Senger; Canva Pro)

Drying Herbs

Tried and true, drying herbs is a time honored tradition that requires no particular skill or equipment. You can quite literally snip or pull a branch off a herb, hang from a thread out of direct sunlight and presto you have dried herbs.

Now if you want maximize the herbs flavor, there are a few more tricks to achieve better results. Using a dehydrator can speed up the drying process and protect more of the volatile compounds.

Some herbs do exceptionally well if you clip them into a paper bag and cool-dry them in the back of your fridge. Parsley is exceptionally green and robust when dried in this manner rather than via the heat of a dehydrator. And I accidentally learned that celery leaves (though not technically an “herb”) also preserve beautifully if allowed to cool-dry in the fridge and they make a fantastic salt substitute when cooking.

Herbs like basil, oregano, marjoram, cilantro, tarragon, rosemary, sage and mint are best harvested before they flower for drying. Others like lavender and dill can be harvested in full bloom.

And even the same herb can be dried at different stages for different results. That’s why cilantro are the leaves of the coriander plant, but left to flower and produce seeds, those round seeds are called “coriander”, themselves a spice used whole or ground. Similarly dill can be dried and used as the leaves and stems which are great for fish or pickles, as well as being left to produce dill seeds more commonly used in a soup or stew.

Herb Pesto

While I have commonly thought of pesto as being a basil and olive oil paste, turns out “pesto” simply means to pound or crush and you can make all kinds of intriguing pesto from herbs in your garden.

So while Genovese basil is the herb that makes classical Italian pesto, pretty much any tender herb can used to create a smooth puree following the proportions in the recipe. The soft leaves of parsley, dill, cilantro, tarragon, chives, mint and other types of basil (like lemon, Thai, cinnamon, Greek, purple, etc.) all make flavorful pesto.

Store it in an airtight jar in the fridge for immediate use, or toss that jar into the freezer to best maintain the color and scents (Note: pesto is still quite easy to just spoon or chip out some from the frozen jar for a quick burst of flavor into a sauce or meal).

Salted Herbs

No freezer is no problem when it comes to keeping herbs. You can take pretty much any fresh herb, coarsely chop it up, combine it with coarse sea salt and like magic, create your own herb salt. A food processor works great for this. The only caveat is that you do not want to create herb puree. Simply chop the herbs, combine with the coarse salt, and mix well.

Left fresh, it’s probably best to store the herbed salt in a fridge. If you spread out the mixture onto a baking sheet and let it continue to air dry a little bit longer, you can store the herb salt on the counter or in the cupboard. Salt is a classical preserving agent so once the moisture escapes the fresh herbs, you are golden to store it.

Just remember this version of herbs is packed with salt so use it wisely in a recipe by cutting back or eliminating other salt measures.

Oil Infusions

You can make flavorful gourmet cooking oil with herbs. The key to doing this safely is to make sure you are not introducing water into your oil. This can be tricky with fresh herbs.

Any kind of cooking oil can be used to make a herbal oil infusion, but usually mild flavored oils are chosen. However, my go-to oil is always Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) because of its exceptional health benefits.

The highest level of safety when preparing herbal oils comes from using properly dried herbs to prevent the introduction of harmful bacteria (like botulism) via moisture droplets. You can bruise a fresh herb to release the oils and volatiles and add it to warmed oil, and then strain the herb bits out to leave only the flavor.

I highly recommend finding a recipe from a reliable source and cross-checking the safety recommendations to be sure you are not wasting your time and resources. Oil is not the best preserving agent unless you handle the preparation and storage carefully.

While you can store herbed oils on the counter, their flavor and freshness is better if you store them in the fridge. You can even pour them into ice cube trays and freeze your herbed oil in small portions for easy use.

Vinegar Infusions

Unlike an oil infusion, vinegar is highly acidic which makes it a great preserving agent. Simply collect your favorite herbs. Wash them thoroughly and pat them dry. Bruise them lightly to release the volatiles and add them to your favorite vinegar. Place them into a dark cupboard and leave the herbs in the vinegar for two to three weeks for the best flavor.

Vinegar has an extraordinary shelf life, so using herbs in this way gives you the same kind of preservation and “staying power” as drying or salted herbs.

Honey Infusion

For something truly unique, a honey-herb infusion is hard to beat. Honey itself can have a unique flavor, depending on the flowers used to create it. Then adding the herbs gives you that next-level of nuance for things like honey BBQ sauces and dips, or even sweetener for you tea or coffee.

The caveat here, however, is the same as for oil infusions. Because wet herbs and moisture can harbor bacteria which could create a food-borne illness, it is safest to approach your honey infusion creations with properly dried herbs rather than fresh if the goal is to make a batch and keep it for a long time.

Usually gentle heat is applied to make the honey easier to work with and speed up the herbal infusion process. This could be as simple as putting the honey into a sterilized glass jar and setting that jar in a bowl of hot water. Make sure the herbs are well coated in the honey and let your mixture set for anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks, or until you have the level of flavor you like. Generally, recipes call for about 2 tablespoons of dried herbs per cup of honey.

Freezing Herbs

There are three main ways to freeze herbs that preserve their flavor and usefulness in the kitchen.

You can freeze whole stocks or branches of herbs simply by laying them flat on a baking sheet with parchment paper and freezing the tray. Once solid, gently place the whole frozen herb or herb pieces into a bag or jar for long term storage in the freezer.

Secondly, you can create an herbal puree using a blender or food processor, adding a little water or oil as needed to make it smooth, and then freeze the puree in jars or ice cube trays.

And lastly you can chop up pieces of fresh herb, pack them into ice cube trays or other molds of suitable portion size, and cover the herbs with water, cooking oil, or broth before slipping the tray into the freezer. The challenge I find with this method is always in making sure all of the herbs are covered by the liquid, otherwise you may find the herb edges get freezer burned easily. But the beauty of this method is that you have ready-to-use herb portions when you are cooking which can save you time when putting together a meal.

Unleash your inner chef

There you have it. Seven different ways to take advantage of the herbs growing in your garden. The cost of dried herbs, herbal salts and gourmet infusions continues to skyrocket when in reality these are some of the simplest things to make right in your own kitchen, even when your herbs come from windowsill or balcony pots.

And from there, the possibilities of using your herbs all year long are nearly endless. Since you can create these herbal delights for pennies compared to what you find in the shops, you can truly go wild.

I don’t know about you, but just having some special oils and salts also motivates me to cook more at home. Few things are more important for your mind and body today then giving yourself the benefits of quality whole foods prepared at home.

What’s your favorite herb and the way you like to preserve it best? Share your ideas in the comments so we can all give them a try.