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Freezing Herbs - A Great Way to Preserve Freshness

Below you will find four different ways to freeze your herbs.

Tip: Freeze small stems of herbs like rosemary and thyme in a freezer bag. Once frozen, it's easy to strip the leaves off for use in recipes.

Methods for Freezing Herbs
The first method for freezing your harvest is to simply mix 2 cups finely chopped herbs with 1 cup water (olive or canola oil may also be used.) Alternatively, you may blend the leaves and water (or oil) together in a blender.

After the mixture is blended, pour it into ice-cubes trays.

Once frozen, unmold the cubes and place them in a labeled and dated pint freezer bag. Be sure to get as much of the air out as possible before sealing the bag.

With this method, it's easy to pop one of the frozen cubes into any dish for added flavor even in the dead of winter.

Be sure to label and date before freezing. When you want to use some, just break off pieces of the frozen clusters.

These frozen blocks may not look too pretty, but the flavor will be retained for about six months.

This third method, which is especially nice with basil leaves, is to freeze individual leaves by washing, if necessary, and drying on a towel.

Next, spread the individual leaves out on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.

Freezing the leaves flat will keep them from clumping into a mass like the method above.

Cover and place the cookie sheet in the freezer.

Once the leaves are frozen, they may be placed in a small freezer bag which has been labeled and dated.

Believe me, you won't know what they are unless you label them!

It also involves washing and drying the leaves if necessary.

After they are clean and dry, just place individual leaves in an ice cube tray and fill with water and freeze.

Basil leaves have a tendency to float to the top so you may want to fill the tray up halfway with water and freeze. Then add more water. That way the leaves can't float to the top.

No matter what method you use, you will love having culinary herbs you grew yourself ready to use in the kitchen any time of year.

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