Making the Most of my Herb Garden



I have to admit, when it comes to my herb garden, I don't do a very good job of using them to their fullest potential. Sure I'll go out and cut a handful of basil for some pesto or a couple of pieces of rosemary for some roasted potatoes, but more often than not, my herbs just sit there looking and smelling good.

This summer I was determined to get the most out of them both now and in the months to come so I decided I would dry some and freeze some. The method you use depends on the herb you're dealing with. Heartier herbs like lavender and rosemary are perfect candidates for drying, while more delicate herbs such as basil are great for freezing.

The key to drying and freezing your herbs is making sure to harvest them from the garden early in the morning before the sun dries out the essential oils from the herbs. After harvesting big bunches of basil, lavender and rosemary, I started with the drying method for the rosemary and lavender. It couldn't have been any more simple. I shook the herbs to get rid of any little critters that might have been hiding in the herbs, tied up the bunches with kitchen twine and secured them to a hanger which I hung in my laundry room where it's cool and away from direct sunlight.



The dreaded salad spinner

 

There are a couple of different methods to use when dealing with basil, but since I'm all about the easiest and least time intensive, I chose the freezer method. I rinsed the basil in a sink full of cold water and 2 teaspoons of salt (again, to get rid of the critters), plucked the leaves from the stems and used a salad spinner to get rid of the excess water. I made one interesting discovery during this process - my daughter Amanda's dog Sophie (who is living with us while Amanda is in the Army) is not a big fan of the salad spinner. In fact, once I started spinning away, she promptly ran upstairs and hid under the bed and wouldn't come down until I had put the salad spinner back in the cupboard.

After removing the excess water from the basil, I spread the leaves on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Into the freezer they went and by evening, they were frozen and went into a big freezer bag. Now I have a ready source of basil when my hankering for pesto hits in the middle of the winter.

When the rosemary dries it will go into a spice bottle. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the lavender -maybe I'll make some nice sachets to go under my pillow. Whatever I choose to do with all my herbs at least this year I can say they didn't go to waste.

I found the following website extremely useful during my herb adventures: http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetablepatch/a/DryingHerbs.htm

Pesto please

I have to admit, up until about three years ago, I was never a fan of pesto. To me, it looked like clippings out of the lawnmower bag so I assumed it would also have the same flavor as a handful of grass clippings (not that I make a habit of eating grass clippings, but you know what I mean). It just looked "green." I don't remember the first occasion when I tried pesto but I do remember that once I tasted it, I was hooked. I fed my addiction with the different varieties of pesto that you can find in the grocery store and that always seemed good enough to me - until the first time I made my own pesto. After that first bite of homemade pesto, there was just no going back to the other stuff.
And it's just so darned easy to make, why would you ever want to go back to the grocery store version? A handful of fresh basil, some Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil and whirl in the food processor and there you have it - fresh pesto. If you're a pesto purist, you can always make it using the mortar and pestle method, but I prefer the quicker and easier food processor method to whip up some of that 'green goodness.'
Pesto will keep for up to three weeks in the fridge if you store it properly - a thin layer of olive oil on top and tightly capped. It can also be frozen for up to a year. Just pack it in small enough quantities that you can just thaw what you need. If you have a bumper crop of basil in the garden, as I do this year, but not enough time to whip up endless batches of pesto, trying freezing the plain, chopped basil in olive oil in ice cube trays and then store the blocks of frozen basil in plastic bags. Then you can make a batch of fresh pesto in the dead of winter - when those store bought varieties are calling to you from the grocery store shelves.
I found this recipe for classic pesto in a neat little cookbook called "Very Pesto" by Dorothy Rankin.

Ingredients
2 cups loosely packed basil leaves
2 large garlic cloves
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup pine nuts or walnut halves
1/2 cup good quality olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper

Combined the basil, garlic, cheese and nuts in the bowl of a food processor. Process to mix. With the machine running, slowly add the olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper and process to desired consistency. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Makes about 1 cup.