Some of the methods that sort of worked are:
- Wrap them in a paper towel and then place them in a Ziploc and store in the fridge. This worked well enough but the last bits always dried out, if I remembered to keep changing the paper towel. If I forgot, well, then I got a sticky, gross, green paper towel.
- Put a little bit of water in a glass or bowl and place a plastic bag over them and place in the fridge. It also worked well enough as long as I remembered to change the water... otherwise I was going to end up with green sludge in the glass/bowl (way gross!) and it was STINKY!
So... I decided to do a experiment that worked. The cilantro in the pictures are both over 3 weeks old! And, it still tasted fresh and cilantro-y. Yea!!
Ok. So the way to do this is....
- take a bowl or glass (the glass works better) and put a wet paper towel in. Not drippy, but a bit more than damp. - put your herb in the glass (do not mix them up or you end with with a weird smelling / tasting herb blend. I did this with cilantro and parsley ... and well, I don't know what it was at the end of the 1st week. *grin*)
- put a Ziploc freezer bag on top, so that it covers all the way down to the base of the glass. You can use a regular plastic bag but the freezer bag works best --- perhaps because it protects from the fridge smells? Or keeps the humidity constant? I know that the herbs lasted longer and smelled more like a herb.
Anyway.. that's it. Use your herbs ....no need to keep adding water, or change paper towels or any other random work.
or, you can move to Arizona, where the low humidity climate is a natural desiccant, with plenty of sunshine (where herbs grow year around) and have a bushes of rosemary, basil, and other herbs that are directly garden accessible, no storage needed.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, for you snowy, northern folk, storing them in the fridge is probably necessary =P