Do you feel the summer slipping away? I know I do. I want to savor all of the freshness, all of the sunshine, and the taste of having fresh herbs at the ready. I want to show you some ways to preserve the summer without costly tools. You might even say that it will save you some money. Hmmm.
I enjoyed many dried herbs from last year’s garden all this past year. I even have some still in my cupboard.
How to Preserve Your Herbs
Let’s talk about ways to preserve your herbs. First of all the cheapest is air drying. It requires almost nothing, except for a way to hang it up to dry. A faster version of this is oven drying. This, however, requires the oven to be turned on, which costs money. Next, you could freeze the herbs in either water, oil, or butter. Lastly, we will talk about creating a liquid extract. Herbs can be preserved in vodka to make a liquid form of the herb. I tried doing this last year to make mint extract. It didn’t work so well, so here goes round two!
Drying Herbs
The first way we talked about is drying herbs. I cut my herbs in the morning after the dew had been dried. This preserves the best flavor for you. Then, wrap each herb bunch with either a rubber band or twine. I hang these bundles from twine on a clothes hanger and staple a small size paper bag around each bundle. Oh, and I write on each one what kind of herb it is.
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Freezing In Oil
The next way that we will look at is freezing your herbs in oil. I just plain old chopped up some fresh herbs, poured some Avocado oil in ice cube trays and sprinkled in some herbs in each section. If you wanted to be detailed about it, you could measure out a teaspoon or a tablespoon in each section.
This can then be popped into a freezer bag or FoodSaver bag for any time you are sauteing veggies, cooking eggs, or frying up some meat. I like to saute vegetables almost every night with all the fresh produce in the summer.
Freezing in Water
I did freeze some of the herbs I harvested in water. These might be useful for soups. If you freeze some herbs such as lavender or mint in an ice cube, it could be refreshing in your tea, water, or lemonade.
I like to add half of a squeezed lemon in my large water (such as 16 oz), adding in some zing such as mint ice cubes sounds delish!
Preserving your Herbs in a Low Temp Oven
I haven’t tried this one but know it wouldn’t be tricky. It might be time-consuming, and right now with all my other preserving projects and working full time, I opted out of this one. However, when you are home, you could just go pick some herbs and place them in the oven, and it might not be that time-consuming.
I just might be doing this more and more as the days become cooler.
Dehydrator
Obviously, if you don’t already have one of these, it could be costly. We don’t have one of these, so I won’t be adding any tips or tricks here.
After we finish our debt-free journey, I would like to purchase one and maybe even a freeze-dryer. But for now, I will just use the cheapest methods I have access to.
Preserving Herbs in Vodka
If you want to create a liquid extract such as mint extract all you need is a bottle with a flip-top lid, vodka, and the herb of choice.
I purchased this bottle from the Dollar Tree. Pack the mint leaves in the bottle with a long spatula or muddler.
I used a funnel and added in the vodka so that the mint could ferment and become Mint Extract over several months time.
Preserve Herbs in Water in Your Frig
For short preservation and to use on demand, you can cut some fresh herbs and store them in the frig. I use these in salads and eggs. You can keep cutting them all season and storing them in the frig to use whenever you want.
So there you have it. These are all ways I have used to preserve herbs around my house. Do you have any other ideas for inexpensive ways to preserve herbs? Comment below!
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