Tips on Harvesting Your Herbs
Many people at enjoy the luxury of having their own home herb garden point in their life. Home-grown herbs are wonderful to have at your fingertips, especially for cooking. Starting your own home herb garden takes a little effort in the beginning, but the delicious, fresh herbs are definitely worth a little investment of your time..
Part of taking proper care of your home herb garden is harvesting the herbs. It’s important to pick your herb at the proper time of the day, because the flavor of the herbs can be adversely affected by the elements.
It is best if your herbs are harvested on a mild, rainless day. Rainless day are preferred because herb plant produces less flavorful oil on wet days. It is also better to try to harvest early in the morning, before the sun dries the dew.
Be careful not to pull the whole plant out of the grown when harvesting and only harvest enough for your immediate use. It is also important that you not harvest more than one third of the plant. Herbs need their leaves to collect energy in order to grow back. Pay attention to any imperfections or bugs before gathering the herbs.
If you have an abundance of herbs that you can not use right away, there are a variety of storage option for future use such as drying; putting in the freezer; or storing them in salt or vinegar.
A few hints about drying herbs:
Gather a small amount of stems together, at least six, and strip any leaves from the bottoms before drying.
Collect these stems together with a string.
Keep drying herbs in a cool, dark area.
Drying separate leaves are easy to preserve on a screen or rack in the pantry. When drying leaves individually, make sure to turn them regularly so they can dry evenly.
Many new gadgets like dehydrators and microwaves can help dry your herbs quicker, but are not necessarily as flavorful as naturally drying them.
Another easy way to keep fresh herbs is to freeze them. First cut your herbs and lay them out on a paper lined baking sheet. After the initial freezing, you can gather the herbs and put them in a bag so they will take up less space in your freezer. You can also keep your herbs fresh by using another material. Some herbs will last for months if they are just covered with a little vinegar to keep them.
Another wonderful way to keep herbs is to layer them with salt, this way you get flavored salt to cook with as well. After the herbs have dried, you can separate the leaves from the salt and keep both in sealed containers.
The best way by far to enjoy fresh herbs is right from the garden. Make sure your herbs are washed properly before use. It is easy to clean herbs using just a bowl and some cold water. In cases where you have a lot of herbs, the sink is often a good bet.
Salt can be used to get rid of stubborn insects without killing the herbs. Just add two tablespoons of salt to the water before rinsing the herbs. Then simply use your handy salad spinner to dry them up.
There are a many varieties of herbs and all herbs have different ways they can be used. Each herb also has specific requirements for harvesting, preparing and storing them. To most fully enjoy your home herb garden, learn about the special requirements of your plants and how to best preserve them for future use. This way, you will always have your own home grown herbs at your fingertips and will be able to enjoy them year round.
