Garden Tool Set: drying

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Monday, August 10, 2015

Hanging on to herbs

Even the most well-stocked herb garden will be looking a little thin by this time of year. Well-established rosemary bushes, bay trees, and sage plants will have fresh leaves all year round, but mint will die down completely, marjoram will be looking rather woody by now, and parsley and oregano will be distinctly straggly.

Most herbs can be preserved for use when fresh leaves aren't available. These days we tend to think of dried herbs as an inferior substitute and it's true that some herbs keep better than others, but it's also the case that your properly dried herbs will be far superior to a jar of dusty leaves that has been hanging out at the back of the mini-mart for months, if not years.

Some herbs dry better than others: oregano, tarragon, and bay leaves all dry well and can be used in a variety of ways. Don't even try to dry basil leaves, and there are better ways to preserve parsley.
You should pick your herbs for drying with care. Find long branches with plenty of healthy leaves on them. Remove any brown or damaged leaves and check over for insects and mites. Wash and dry if necessary. Tie the stems together and wrap loosely in muslin or put them in large paper bag. Close the bag around the bottom of the stems and punch some air holes at the top of the bag.

Find somewhere warm, and well-ventilated without being draughty, where you can hang your herbs up. If you can’t hang them up, then lay them out singly with space around each stem on a tray

Under the rafters in the loft, an airing cupboard, or a cupboard under the stairs are both good. I dry most things over the cooker hood

Leave the herbs until completely dry, then transfer to a jar. Try not to break up the leaves – they will retina their flavour better if you crumble them just before you use them.

Seal tightly and store in a cool, dark, cupboard. Try to use them within three months to get the best of their flavour.

Freezing herbs

What about those herbs that don't dry well? Parsley and basil are both reasonably good after freezing. You can freeze whole leaves in a bag, or in ice cube trays. In both cases, I'd say they are best used stirred into dishes such as casseroles, rather than in salads or as a garnish.
To freeze in a bag, pick out your best leaves or sprigs and lay them out in a single layer, not touching, on a tray. Place in the freezer and leave until frozen. Then transfer to a freezer bag and seal.

To freeze in an ice cube, chop the herb finely, then squish into ice cube trays. Carefully fill the tray until the herbs are just covered. Freeze, then remove from the freezer and top up each cube with water – that way the chopped leaves won't all float up to the top of the cube and be exposed to the air.

Once completely frozen, push the cubes out of the trays, transfer to a bag and replace in the freezer.

Frozen herbs - by either method - should be used within three months.

Herb vinegars

Thyme vinegar, left, and tarragon vinegar, steeping. The
vinegar will be strained and decanted before being
stored and used.

Herb vinegars make beautifully flavoured salad dressings. Tarragon vinegar is probably my favourite but rosemary or thyme vinegars are also intensely fragrant and will give your gravy a lovely sharp herby finish.

Again, pick leafy stems in prime condition. Bruise the leaves slightly, either by running the rolling pin over them or with a pestle. Put the herbs in a sterilised jar, cover with a plain vinegar (I usually use white wine vinegar, sometimes cider vinegar) and leave somewhere warm for 2-3 weeks, giving it a good shake every now and then.

Strain the vinegar through a fine sieve or muslin into another sterilised bottle. Seal and use when required.

With the harvesting season well underway, we're choosing which of our produce to eat immediately and which to put by for winter-time when the garden is less productive. We can freeze our vine leaves, dry the chillies, pickle the garlic, steep the pears in alcohol, and dry the beans.

Our favourite beans for growing are the beautful magenta and cream borlotti beans. Beans can take up a lot of space, even when trained up a trellis, or wrapped around a sweetcorn plant in a traditional Three Sisters planting scheme. They're easy to grow and look so colourful and lovely in the garden. Then, when they're ready to harvest in August and September, the fresh beans are delicious to eat newly podded and simply cooked.

Even better, though, is keeping the bulk of the crop back to supply beany sustenance throughout the winter. Drying your own beans is a simple process and doesn't take long.

Fresh borlotti beans, left, with their stunningly rich crimson pods, which dry to a
dusky purple colour, right, when left on the plants into the autumn.

Leave the bean pods on the plants for as long as possible. They must be picked before the first frost, but if you can leave them until October, you'll see the bright crimson pods fade to a deep flecked purple and then almost to black. The pods will be hard and dry to the touch. Cut them off the plants, then thread the pods together and hang them up somewhere airy until all the pods are dried out. Or you can spread them out in a net and hang that somewhere. Either way, leave them be for about 2-3 weeks to ensure that the beans inside are truly dry and ready to store.

When you come to shell the beans, they should be rattling inside the pods and will fall on to the worktop with a clatter. If they land with a soft thud instead, they need to dry for a little longer.

Finally, put the shelled beans in a freezer bag and seal. Place in the freezer for about 48 hours. This quick freeze just ensures that if the beans were harbouring any bugs, mites or insect eggs, that they are killed off. Once out of the freezer, spread the beans out briefly on kitchen paper just to check they’re dry again, then pour into a clean dry jar with a tightly fitting lid.

Keep in a dark cool place and they will last for months.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Hanging on to herbs

Drying beans for winter