Sadly, the time has come to pack up the the last, last, last of the outdoor plants. (If we're being honest, it might even be a week or two too late.) I held off harvesting my herbs as long as possible -- largely out of sentimentality toward my long-gone summer gardening routine. Now that temps are dropping down to single digits, however, the party is officially over.
Here are a few ways to stretch the life of your garden harvest, if you're interested!
INFUSED BUTTER
I've already talked about my foray into homemade infused butter and, so far, it's the most satisfying way I've found to preserve fresh herbs.
(Also: DUH. It's butter!)
FROZEN
Try freezing your herbs in olive oil. I cut up parsley, sage, rosemary, and chives into tiny pieces, and portioned them out (in an empty ice cube tray) for single use. Pour olive oil overtop until the herbs are covered, then freeze. Once frozen, the oil became opaque and pale yellow. When you're ready to cook, you can pop one cube out at a time, as needed.
DRIED
Dry and store herbs in a clean mason jar (or similar sealable container). Oddly, I've struggled with this method the most! I could have sworn my fresh rosemary had dried out to crispy perfection but, after three days in a glass jar, it started sprouting mould (disgusting). In fairness, I was impatient and should have let the plants air-dry even longer, so the failure is on me lol.
KEEP GOING!
Risk keeping them indoors. Just last week, my chives and parsley sprung back for a third life. I felt too guilty tossing them in the compost bin, so into the house they came. To be honest, I'm not sure how long they'll survive, since my apartment doesn't get loads of sunlight. But you might have better luck!
So, have you called it quits on Gardening Season 2020? Were you able to preserve any of that hard work? I'm definitely curious to hear about it :)
Image credit (top): Popular Science
Image credits: Food Waste Feast (herb butter), Foods Guy (frozen), The Spruce (dried), Country Living (indoors)
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