Store Up Your Herbal Harvest

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Your outdoor gardens and your foraging are likely to produce more herbs and greens than you can use fresh daily. Even indoor plants may bear so bountifully that you can't keep up with them. To ensure a delicious variety of herb flavors year-round without wasting any of your crop, you can preserve the foliage in various ways.

Some basics before you start:

• Herb flavors are generally strongest just before the plants flower.
• Pick healthy growth and discard damaged leaves.
• Gather herbs and greens in the morning - after the dew has dried but before the sun gets hot.
• If necessary, wash and dry herbs and greens before preserving them.

Freezing

My favorite way to preserve many herbs and greens is to freeze them with other foods. When winter comes, my freezer overflows with green beans and summer savory, herby tomato sauce, spinach lasagne, pesto and other good dishes already flavored with fresh-tasting herbs.

Unfortunately, summer is so short and demanding that many of us do not have time to make up complicated dishes to freeze. Start simply:

• Add a few rosemary sprigs to each corn packet, some chopped dill to broccoli or peas, marjoram and oregano to squash. Freeze some easy-to-make pesto and end-of-the-herb-garden tomato sauce. Then, if you have time, try some other recipes.
• Chives, dill, marjoram, mints, oregano, parsley and tarragon can be frozen in small packets to use as needed. Place sprigs or chopped leaves in small plastic bags or fold them into squares of plastic wrap. Seal and label them. Add whatever you need, unthawed, to the dish you are cooking. Frozen herbs become limp when they thaw, so they are not satisfactory in salads, but you can chop them into salad dressings or blend them into mayonnaise.
• Herbs and greens can be spun in the blender with water to cover, then frozen in ice-cube trays. Break out cubes, pack them in plastic bags and label. A mixture of herbs is good done this way - you can pull out as many cubes as you want to add to soup, tomato juice or sauces.
• Freeze mint or lemon balm leaves and borage or violet flowers in containers filled with water to make decorative ice cakes for punch bowls or mint tea.
• Get a head start on stuffing for the holidays by freezing a seasoning mix when everything is fresh in the garden. Chop onions and celery (or lovage) fine in the combination you like in stuffing. Add herbs to taste: parsley, sage, marjoram, savory and thyme. Freeze in small containers. Thaw and add to bread crumbs when you're ready to stuff the bird.

Drying

Dried herbs take up little space, they're convenient to have near the kitchen stove, and you may have to make do with them if you don't have a freezer or indoor herb garden. No dried herbs taste quite like fresh ones, but many have a flavor that is just as good in a different way.