by Greg Draiss

Created on: November 04, 2008   Last Updated: November 19, 2008

Harvesting Herbs for Flavor and Quantity

Summer is finally upon us and hopefully all of your gardens are in full bloom. Hopefully you are enjoying the bountiful blooms of midsummer gardens. The surprising fact of flowers is they are not putting on their shows for us at all. All that color scent and beauty is for one purpose and one purpose only, reproduction. Once a plant flowers, it considers its job done, sets seed and in the case of annuals dies and perennials stop growing for the season.

Stops growing for the season, this is a key point to understand if you want a bountiful harvest from your herb garden. An herb that stops growing does not give a bountiful harvest. Indeed you get little additional to harvest after herbs set flower.

To have a continuous harvest of flavorful leaves for summer salads sauces and vinegars one must not let an herb flower. There are of course some herbs we grow specifically for their flowers. Chamomile flowers are used for tea. Cilantro is allowed to flower and set seed for coriander. And chive flowers make purple vinegar. However there is little use for flowers of basil, sage, oregano and others. Many plants turn bitter shortly after flowering.

So the key to extending the harvest throughout summer into early fall is snip off flower buds as they appear. That sounds easy at first but it is no easy task to remove the flowers on basil if you have a large patch. And since basil is finally growing now that it warmed up it seems it is setting flowers daily.

The best way to harvest herbs is to cut them as you need them. This way there is little waste and it does not become a chore. I find it very pleasing to go through the garden and snip just enough parsley, thyme and oregano for the night's meal. And the more you cut the more you get. Great investment.

But sooner or later the growing season will end and you need to store up herbs for use all winter. Drying is the easiest way to store large quantities of herbs for future use. Drying is also a very easy task. The easiest way to dry herbs is to lay them out on a window screen and hang the screen in a warm dark area such a garage or attic. Bright light will cause the flavorful oils to leach out and damp areas will cease the drying process all together and cause the herbs to mildew as well. You can dry herbs in an oven set at very low temperature (225*). Microwaving is the east preferred way but will work in a pinch.

Herbs are dried and ready for storage when they are as crunchy as fall leaves. Store them in a dark cool place and they will keep for a year.

One word of caution when cooking with dried herbs. Dried herbs are much stronger than fresh. Dried herbs have all the water removed and all that is left is the essential oils that are what gives herbs their flavor. If a recipe calls for one tablespoon of fresh herbs use one tea spoon of dried instead.

While they won't perform well try bringing a few herbs indoors for the window. Place them in a sunny window. Since misery loves company and we all get the winter blues to some extent we won't feel as bad when we glance at our sickly window sill herb garden. We are not the only ones longing for spring when March rolls around

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