How-To: Freezing Fresh Herbs

I want to be a gardener, I do.  I’ve given it a try, but as many of your know, my garden gave me the finger.

Oy.

So what’s a saddy sad non-gardening grandmama to do?  STEAL FROM THE NEIGHBORS!

Not really, come on now.  I’m a granny for goodness sakes.  I have an example to set.  Most of the time…

Instead of stealing from the neighbors, I’m lucky enough who have neighbors who share.  Maybe their generosity is spurred on by getting these or these hand-delivered by yours truly, or maybe they’d share even if they knew I couldn’t bake.  No matter.  I simply love that they share.

Before everything got frost-bitten here, I snagged some fresh basil, cilantro and rosemary.  Once I got them home, my hands and house smelled delicious and I suddenly wanted brick-oven pizza.

Since I couldn’t use all the herbs before they’d spoil, I put out a call to my gardeny friends for advice.  The consensus was to wash, dry, then freeze the herbs for later use.  Some advised chopping, others to lay flat.  My Google research had one caveat: once thawed, the herbs might be a bit limpish, so it’s best to use them in a dish that will be cooked.

Gotcha.

My freshly picked haul:

Come closer and smell that aromatic basil.  ~faint~

Oh, Hai!  How’d dat lemon get in there?!  The one thing I can grow are Meyer Lemon trees.  The squirrels decimated my crop in the droughty summer, but this one, and a few others, hung on.

If you have never had a Meyer Lemon, I weep for you.  Boo-Hoo!  They are terrific.  So as not to waste the lemons, I freeze their juice to use in the winter when I need a summery pick-me-up.

Washed, dried and packaged herbs are ready to freeze.  All of the air has been pushed out of the bags for insurance against freezer burn, plus they’ll store flat.

The bag on the top has a wet napkin inside the bag because I plan on using them on a pizza soon.  No freezey.

It’s as easy as that.

Do you have any knowledge you’d like to lay on us in the arena of frozen herbs? Anything else we should take into consideration?

Weigh-in, my babies!

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