Fresh Herbs Wilted Before You Used Them? Try This.

Love buying fresh herbs?

Yeah, me too.

Do you watch them wilt before you get to use them? I guess that is why they sell them in such small packages in the produce section, but sometimes when you have a recipe that only calls for a tablespoon, sometimes it is hard to use it all up in time. We don’t all have green thumbs (namely myself) so try these tips to have fresher herbs longer.

If you watch cooking shows, you will sometimes notice that they have fresh herbs on the countertop – like fresh cut flowers. I am here to tell you that is a great way to store them. Another bonus – if you have herbs like basil, mint, cilantro, etc. they will give off a nice fresh fragrance.

I store my herbs like this now as well – BUT, they will still wilt within a few days if you don’t take care to do this properly. If you don’t think you’ll use that entire bunch of parsley within a few days, don’t put it all in the pot. Put in only a few days worth and then store the rest in the fridge. Properly.

These bunches of cilantro and parsley have been in the fridge for five days already. Yep. They still look as fresh as the day I bought them.

So what is the proper way to do it?

Fridge storage:

Wet a paper towel. Loosely wrap it around your chosen herbs and put it in a gallon sized freezer bag – pressing carefully to let out most of the air. Plop the bag in your crisper drawer and you are good to go.

If you are also displaying some, just take out a bunch little by little and put them in the vase on the countertop.

Countertop Storage:

Do this a little at a time or if you cook a lot.

Trim the stems as you would do flowers. Make sure there are just stems at the bottom, no leaves. You only want stems to touch the water. If your vase is too big, use a small glass of water inside to keep the bunch neat.

When you initially put them in water, they may go limp, but don’t worry, they will perk back up in time.

Change the water every couple of days and remove any herbs that have started to wilt.

So, there you have it. A great way to store fresh herbs, not to mention it is a great way to keep inventory of what you have.

 Want to know what they look like 12 days later? Here is my herb update.

This entry was posted on November 23, 2011 at 7:00 am and is filed under Learning Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.