Kelli and the "Frozen Herbs"

As we were going through the work of canning as much of our harvest as we could this summer and fall - Kelli decided that she didn't want to loose the great flavors that our herb garden was consistently adding to meals... so she discovered a great way to harvest and store herbs to keep their flavors as fresh as the day they were picked. Drying them, while it does work, quickly looses the subtle freshness flavors and leaves you with the "taste" of parsley - without the "flavor" of parsley. (if you don't understand that - make something and at the end - add dried parsley (or any other herb) to half and fresh to the other half - then taste)

Somewhere she discovered that by packing an ice cube tray full of the desired herb (or mixture of herbs) then filling the rest of the individual cubes with water - you then freeze the tray and when the ice has formed you have "fresh" herbal ice cubes that you pop out of the tray and store in air tight freezer bags. Then when you want that fresh flavor of parsley, basil, thyme, oregano or sage... you just pop out a cube and toss it into the meal... water goes away and you have fresh, green, tasty herbs (not dried) flavoring your meal. Works like a charm. I'd like to try this with mint for summer iced tea!

So - in homage to the herbal ice cubes that reside in our basement next to the pastured chicken, fresh frozen vegetables and the tender venison I thought I'd just share some interesting pictures of the "natural" freezing of the remaining herbs from a heavy frost a week or so back.

Comments

[Jeph]

Oh so you guys really like this method, hunh? I've heard about it over the years, but never tried it - 1) not wanting a bunch of extra ice taking up space in the freezer if it wasn't going to be worth it, and 2) not sure if they'd just taste like watery, bruised (from the freezing) versions of the herbs.

Nuts - wish I would've tried this! Oh well - MIGHT still be able to salvage some of the hardier herbs, and may give it a shot. IF I can find them under all the snow! ;-)

BTW - those pics are beautiful!