Checking in on your Herb Garden!

By Chef/Farmer Andrea

It’s been almost three months since we delivered herb packs, so I wanted to check in and see how your gardens are doing!  Whether you planted your herbs in pots or in a garden space, I hope you have had success with your plants this year and are flooded with herbs!  This week I want to offer some suggestions for how to use herbs in larger volume in your summer cooking, with hopes of making the most out of your herb gardening efforts.  I will also offer some suggestions for ways you can preserve your herbs so you can continue to enjoy them and reap their benefits throughout the winter.

Most of the time we use herbs in smaller quantities as a flavoring. Perhaps we top off a bowl of soup or a salad with some chopped parsley or add a tablespoon or two of oregano to our tomato sauce.  When your plants are really growing in the peak of their season, a tablespoon or sprig here and there just doesn’t cut it!  While we do often use herbs as a flavor enhancer, we can also use them in volume and treat them more like a vegetable.  Consider salads such as Tabbouleh.  Tabbouleh is a Lebanese salad that is based on parsley and mint with lesser amounts of bulgur, tomatoes, lemon, etc.  Instead of using tablespoons of parsley, you use cups of parsley!  So if your parsley is going crazy right now, make a bowl of this fresh salad!  I also like to make simple vegetable salads throughout the summer and fall that are heavy on herbs, such as a Carrot Parsley Salad that is nothing more than shredded carrots, lots of chopped fresh parsley and a light lemon vinaigrette.

There are other ways to use larger quantities of herbs.  Pesto is something most people are familiar with.  If your basil plant has become a bush, it’s time to trim it back and make a big batch of basil pesto.  You’d be surprised at how much basil you can use in a single batch!  If you have the potential to make more pesto than you can consume right now, reach for your full potential and make extra.  You can easily freeze it in small jars or ice cube trays so you have it available to use throughout the winter.  Pull some out and add it to pasta sauce, soup, spread it on pizza crust and bread or make a quick pasta dish with it.

Chimichurri

Chimichurri is an Argentinian herb sauce-type preparation that is based on parsley and oregano.  It’s a delicious accompaniment to grilled meat, but I also like to toss roasted potatoes and root vegetables with it just before serving them.

Of course you can use your fresh herbs to make flavorful vinaigrettes, add them to egg dishes such as frittatas, quiche and egg casseroles, use them in marinades or to season roasted meats, and don’t forget adding them to green smoothies!  But even with an intentional effort to incorporate more herbs into your meals, it can be hard to keep up with your garden.  So lets transition our thinking to preservation.  The most obvious way to preserve herbs is by drying them.  Some herbs retain their flavor better when dried than others.  Parsley, thyme, sage, savory and oregano are good candidates for drying.  When you’re ready, go ahead and harvest a large quantity.  I dry them on the stem, but you could pull the leaves off the stem before you dry them.  You can lay them out in a single layer either on dehydrator sheets if you’re using a low heat dehydrator or on cookie sheets if you are using a low heat oven.  I also sometimes make little bundles of herbs and tie off the stem end with a rubber band to hold the bunch together.  Then I hang the bunches on hooks in my kitchen to let them air dry. If you do this, make sure they are in a good location with adequate airflow and out of direct sunlight.  Once your herbs are dry, strip the leaves off the stems, crush the leaves into smaller pieces if you wish, and put them in a jar or sealed bag to retain their flavor as you use them throughout the winter.  Basil can be dried as well, although personally I don’t care for dried basil and prefer to preserve it in the form of pesto to retain more of that fresh basil flavor.  I don’t have any experience drying chervil, so I can’t offer any expertise on the outcome.  If you’ve had success with drying chervil, please let me know!

Herb Salt, photo from howsweeteats.com

I do know chervil would be a good herb to preserve in the form of herbed butter!  Herbed Butter is also called Compound Butter.  You can make it with any mix of herbs you have in your garden.  It’s great to have in the refrigerator to use when making scrambled eggs, melt it over steamed vegetables, use it in sauces for pasta, melt a pat on top of grilled steak or fish, or just simply spread it on warm bread! You can use it fresh, but it can also be frozen.  It really is fun to find some frozen herb butter in the freezer in the middle of winter!  I’ve included a recipe with this article to guide you in the proportions.  You can also make Herb Salt.  You can make individual herb salts or blend some of the herbs you have available to make your own custom blends.  These also make great Christmas gifts!

Herb oils and herb vinegars are also ways to preserve herbs.  Mountain Rose Herbs has some great information on their blog about how to make Herbal Vinegar.  They also have a lot of great information about making Herb Infused Culinary Oils as well as Bath Salts and more!

Herb Infused Honey

While we often think of herbs mostly in the context of culinary use, the herbs in our herb packs also have medicinal properties.  Two years ago Jean Schneider wrote a great article for us about Fall Herb Preservation & Ways to Use Culinary Herbs Medicinally.  Jean is a longtime HVF supporter and is a herbalist at Nativa Medica.  In her article she offered suggestions for how to make Sage Infused Honey as well as how to use Sage and Thyme as teas to keep us healthy through the winter.  The Latin name for garden sage actually means “healing plant.”  While it’s a tasty culinary herb, it can also help ward off colds and soothe sore throats as it has anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.  Thyme is also beneficial for supporting respiratory health and enhancing immunity.  These are just a few examples of how your culinary herb garden can also be your medicinal herb garden.

Some of the herbs in your herb pack are perennials, meaning they are more winter hardy and can survive the winter.  Sage, thyme, oregano and savory are perennials.  Basil, chervil and parsley are annuals and most likely will not survive the winter.  To increase the chances of winter survival, we recommend putting some mulch around the base of your perennial herb plants.  You can use straw or even just dried leaves.  Don’t totally cover the plant, just tuck some mulch around the base to buffer the base from the cold and cover the bare ground.

I hope I’ve given you a few ideas for ways to maximize your herbs as we enjoy the last few weeks of summer and prepare for fall and winter.  It’s hard to imagine that those spindly little plants we delivered back in May can produce enough product for us to enjoy both now and throughout the winter!  Have fun using and preserving your herbs and as always, we invite you to send us pictures and emails about what you’re doing.  Our Facebook Group is another great place to share your projects and pictures!

Herb Butter

Yield: ¾ cup

Stir together in a small bowl, mixing well:

• 8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, softened
• ½ cup chopped herbs (such as parsley, chervil, etc)
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• Salt and fresh-ground pepper
• A pinch of cayenne

Taste and adjust the salt and lemon as needed.

Variations:

• Chopped shallots and pounded garlic are delicious additions.
• For a more lemony flavor, add some finely grated lemon zest.
• For a more pungent butter that is perfect with corn on the cob, flavor with dried chile peppers, soaked, drained, and pounded to a paste.

This recipe comes from The Art of Simple Food, by Alice Waters.  You can use this butter fresh, but I’d recommend using it within a week of making it.  Herbed butter is also a good way to preserve the fresh flavor of herbs and can be frozen.  Pack it in small jars or roll it into logs.  While the butter is still soft, lay out a sheet of parchment or waxed paper.  Using a knife, spread the butter in the middle of the paper and form it into a log shape.  Lay the paper over the butter and gently roll the butter to form a log.  Twist the ends of the log and then either wrap it in plastic wrap or put it in a freezer bag.  Pop it in the freezer and pull it out whenever you’re ready to use it!

Fall Herb Preservation

by Jean Schneider, Herbalist at Nativa Medica & HVF CSA Member

How did your spring herb packs do in your garden or pots this year?  If yours are like mine, the sage did pretty well if you could keep it dry enough this year!  Who knows when the frost will come, so it's time to preserve your herbs before it’s too late.  All of the herbs in our packs are Mediterranean herbs.  As a group, these herbs are pungent, aromatic, warming and many are anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral.  Sounds like the perfect thing for fall and winter right?

As an herbalist I like to recommend herbs that are inexpensive and easy to find.  I am not very prone to colds, viruses and flu but those around me are!  My husband gets a few colds and viruses every winter, partly from all the time he spends in our public schools getting exposed.  Over the years, adding more consistent use of culinary herbs seems to have helped reduce the number and severity of illnesses he suffers each winter.  Every soup I make in the winter has a good amount of thyme in it and we regularly use sage honey in our cooking and make lavender honey tea.

There are two uses we will preserve herbs for from our herb packs; culinary and medicinal.  All of the herbs in the packs are culinary herbs and several of them are powerful medicinal herbs too.  Let’s start with preserving some of the herbs specifically for medicinal uses for colds, flu and viruses.  My two favorite herbs from the pack for this are thyme and sage. 

Medicinal Herbs

Thyme Preservation

I prefer to gently dry thyme.  Cut the thyme off about an inch above the ground.  Make sure the herb is dry already (not after a rain or with dew on it).  Either tie the stems into small bundles with string, or separate the stems and lay them out on your dehydrator racks.  Slowly and gently dry at low, low temperatures and monitor closely if in the dehydrator.  Using temperatures that are too high or drying for too long will cause the volatile oils that are important in the medicine of the plant to be lost.  If you tied the bundles with string, hang them in an area that gets good air flow (not your basement).  I hang mine on my kitchen cabinet knobs or on a coat rack in my entryway that I am not using.  Leave them for a week or so.  Once dry, remove leaves from the stems using clean hands by gently rubbing them off.  Store in an air tight container, like a Mason jar.

To Use Thyme as Medicine

•       As a face steam for cough or plugged sinuses - put 1” of water in a pot, bring to low simmer so it is steaming.  Add a tablespoon of dried thyme leaves, put a towel over your head and lean over the pot.  Be careful as you first do this so your face doesn’t get too hot.  Move your face away or closer based on temperature.  Breathe in the steam and feel the loosening and draining begin.  Do this up to 3-4 times per day, as needed.

•       As a tea - 1-2 teaspoons dried leaves per cup boiling water, steep 10 minutes, covered.

Use Thyme For:

•      dry or wet coughs

•      congestion of sinuses or lungs

•      intestinal spasms and general gastrointestinal problems

  

Properties of Thyme

•       stimulates immune system

•       relaxes tissue

•       penetrates and loosens thick stuck mucus in sinuses and lungs

•       anti-viral

•       anti-bacterial

•       anti-fungal

•       anti-spasmodic (for coughs and gastrointestinal)

Sage Preservation

Sage is a really fun herb to preserve for the winter and may be dried using the methods described for thyme preservation.  Additionally, you can use sage to make infused honey.

Fine mesh strainer and bowl used
to strain the herbs from the honey.

Sage as Infused Honey 

and Leaves for Tea

•       sage leaves (no stems)

•       honey from farmer’s market

•       clean and dry Mason jar and two-piece lid

•       fine mesh strainer

•       large light weight bowl

First, get some good quality honey from the farmer’s market and have a clean and dry Mason jar ready.  Cut your sage off about an inch above the ground, making sure you harvest when the herb is dry (no rain or dew).  Remove the leaves from the stems and compost the stems.  Put the fresh leaves in the jar, press them down and fill to about half full.  Choose the size of the jar based on how much leaves you have.  Cover the leaves with honey and stir well.  Once the leaves are coated in honey, fill the rest of the jar with honey, leaving about an inch of air space between the lid and honey.  Make sure the lid is on tight and place in a sunny window or countertop and flip the jar once or more a day.  Kids love to be in charge of this!  Flipping the jar upside down allows the herbs to mix into the honey.  The herbs will slowly rise to the top, and the jar can be flipped again helping it mix.  The sunny window helps keep the honey warm, but a countertop will do just fine too.  I let this go for about a month, then pour into a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and let gravity and stirring do the work of separating the honey from the sage leaves.  Do this in batches if necessary until done.  Store the infused honey at room temperature or in a warm place.  You can also keep it near your tea kettle so you don’t forget about it.  The honey is good indefinitely.  The leaves that are left will still have honey stuck to them, this is good as the honey will preserve the leaves.  Put the leaves back into the jar and then into the refrigerator where they will keep several months.

Herbs infusing with the honey. 

  

To Use Sage as Medicine

•       sage infused honey - eat a spoonful or use in hot water as tea

•       sage leaves coated in honey - use to make sage tea by adding several leaves per cup with hot water and steep for 10 minutes covered.

Use Sage For:

•       sore throats

•       runny noses

•       wet coughs

Properties of Sage:

•       dries moisture and brings up oil, soothing tissue

•       anti-bacterial

•       anti-viral

•       anti-inflammatory

•       anti-oxidant

•       a caution to nursing mothers - sage can dry up milk production

•       not for use in pregnancy

Finished jar of herb infused honey!

Preservation of Tender Culinary Herbs

For the more tender herbs like basil, parsley and chervil this will be the best preservation method since they lose their flavor when you dry them.  You can use this method for the oregano and savory too, but both of those will dry well using either the hanging or dehydrator method from the thyme section. 

Easy Ice-cube Tray Preserved Herbs

•       ice cube tray

•       herb of your choice, stems removed, leaves chopped

•       organic extra virgin olive oil

Place chopped herb leaves into a bowl, cover generously with olive oil and stir.  Place into as many ice cube compartments as needed.  Freeze until solid, pop out of the ice cube tray and put into labeled plastic bags in the freezer.  The herbs are already chopped and ready to use in any recipe.

I like to use these cubes in a variety of ways all winter long.  There is no need to thaw them out in advance as they take only a minute or two to melt in a pan or pot.  Most of the time I forget to add the herbs until the dish is almost cooked and I am looking for more flavor to add.  When sautéing veggies for scrambled eggs add the herb cube in.  For soups and stews you can either add the herb cube while you are sautéing veggies, or add it during the simmering time.  For Shepard’s pie or pot pies, add the herb cube in while the filling is simmering.

Don’t forget to use your dried thyme leaves in your cooking too.  Even though the medicinal uses are so important with thyme, you will get similar benefits from using thyme regularly throughout the winter.  Every soup, stew and roast I make gets a tablespoon or more of thyme added into it in addition to any other spices the recipe calls for.  I grow some in my herb garden, but it is never enough, so I buy it by the pound to make sure we have enough for the entire winter!

Using culinary herbs regularly gives our bodies and health a continual boost and support system.  I have always wondered if the main reason why the Mediterranean diet has resulted in healthy people actually has as much to do with regular use of culinary herbs (all the herbs from our packs are Mediterranean herbs)  as it does with fresh food.  The people of this area cook with fresh food and an abundance of herbs throughout the year.  Let’s follow their example.

It’s a great time to ask your friends if they have any herbs to spare from their gardens too.  Having a winter store of herbs to use not only makes our food more tasty in the winter, but also helps support our health.

Find me on Facebook: @NativaMedica