Best Ways To Harvest, Preserve & Store Your Garden Herbs

Summer is a great time to replenish stocks of herbs in our kitchen shelves and pantries. Thanks to the cheerful warm and sunny weather, in that season many herbs achieves the strongest aroma as well as essential oils. Therefore, it is important to learn how to harvest herbs at an appropriate time and how to dry and store them collectively to keep as much of their flavor.

Generally, most herbs have the best flavor and fragrance before flowering. So make sure to harvest them before the flowering. As a rule of thumb, never harvest more than one-third of the entire aerial growth at one time so that the plant can recover again. Although, exception are some fast growing herbs like chives and mint (or any other particular herb that grows best in your region) that can be harvested more aggressively. The leaves are collected according to the characteristics of the plant, for example– Harvest the top set of basil leaves to keep it bushy, while for parsley the outer leaves should be harvested first.

The best time of day to harvest herbs is the late morning or early afternoon after the dew has dried off (which can promote fungus after harvesting), but it must be done before the intense midday sun.

To harvest herbs grown for their seeds, say– dill, fennel, cumin, coriander, and caraway; wait for a dry day and when the seedpods are dry and brittle. Shake the ripened seed pod into a paper bag, label it and store it in a dry place.

Harvest herb flowers just as they start to open. The flowers, like those of nasturtium, borage, chives, cilantro or fennel are mainly used as a flavoring when fresh. Lavender, chamomile, and bergamot etc. can be harvested the same way you read about harvesting the leaves. Learn how to store and harvest chamomile