In our climate zone, it doesn’t get much better than this, with the garden coming in, lush herbs, and only a foretaste of the bugs and swelter that comes with full summer. While enjoying the here and now, it’s not a bad idea to prep for the cold, gardenless months to come. Even though I’ve claimed the august title of “Herb Guy”, I don’t claim to be an expert, and I’m still learning, as I try different growing and preserving techniques with my herbs. I’ve always reached for dried herbs to enhance my winter stews, but this year I’ve going to freeze some of my excess produce. Most of what I’ve read calls for spreading the herbs on a cookie sheet to freeze them, but I’m partial to the ice cube tray method, in which the chopped herbs are packed into ice cube trays and frozen to yield nice little cubes of flavor.

Freezing should lock in the herb flavor, but does destroy the texture of the leaf. This is not a problem for a long-simmered stew or sauce, but may be an issue with, say, an herb omelet. So I’m going to experiment this year with blanching, dumping the chopped herbs into a big pot of boiling water, and then straining them almost immediately. Since (as mentioned in a previous entry) I have a virtually unlimited supply of chives, I’m freezing a batch of raw chives and one of the blanched herb. I’ll let you know this winter if there is any discernable difference between the two versions.