I'm re posting this on these groups for a wider audience:

I have been growing italian parsley in a small windo box planter and now
have a large bumper crop. Does anyone know of a good method of drying the
parsley and keeping it in as indefinitely as possible?

I have also thought about cleaning it, chopping it and freezing it.

JT

Taylors in Japan wrote:

I have been growing italian parsley in a small window box planter and now
have a large bumper crop. Does anyone know of a good method of drying the
parsley and keeping it in as indefinitely as possible?

I'd use a dehydrator (... I do have 4 ov'em), but dried parsley isn't all
that good really.
It'll dry faster if you remove the larger stems. It's completely dry when
it doesn't bend but breaks; at that point, crush it up and put it into a
glass jar with a tight lid.

I have also thought about cleaning it, chopping it and freezing it.

Frozen parsley is definitely the better choice. No need to chop it, just
clean it; when it's frozen you just crush some in the bag, or scrape some
out of your jar with a spoon, and use that.

fup set to rge.

Henriette

--
Henriette Kress, AHG Helsinki, Finland
Henriette's herbal homepage: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed
Best of RHOD: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/rhod

"Taylors in Japan" wrote in message
...
I'm re posting this on these groups for a wider audience:

I have been growing italian parsley in a small windo box planter and
now
have a large bumper crop. Does anyone know of a good method of drying
the
parsley and keeping it in as indefinitely as possible?

I have also thought about cleaning it, chopping it and freezing it.

JT


Drying parsley is a complete waste of time as it looses 99% of its
flavour no matter how careful you are. Freezing will give you a fair
amount of flavour if not the texture.

David

"Taylors in Japan" wrote:

I'm re posting this on these groups for a wider audience:

I have been growing italian parsley in a small windo box planter and now
have a large bumper crop. Does anyone know of a good method of drying the
parsley and keeping it in as indefinitely as possible?

I have also thought about cleaning it, chopping it and freezing it.

JT

In our experience, dried parsley tastes almost, but not quite, as good
as dried alfalfa. Frozen, on the other hand works well for us.
Others may disagree and, they're free to do so.

Ross.

Thanks for the advice. I dried the parsley last night to drain any excess
water from cleaning--the cold dry climate here in Japan this time of year
takes care of that nicely. I just finished putting it in the freezer.

I have another question: what herbs are best frozen and what are best
dried?

JT


"Taylors in Japan" wrote in message
...
I'm re posting this on these groups for a wider audience:

I have been growing italian parsley in a small windo box planter and now
have a large bumper crop. Does anyone know of a good method of drying the
parsley and keeping it in as indefinitely as possible?

I have also thought about cleaning it, chopping it and freezing it.

JT

"Taylors in Japan" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the advice. I dried the parsley last night to drain any
excess
water from cleaning--the cold dry climate here in Japan this time of
year
takes care of that nicely. I just finished putting it in the freezer.

I have another question: what herbs are best frozen and what are best
dried?


The subtle herbs like parsley, chervil etc don't dry well. Coriander
(cilantro) leaf is not what I would call subtle when fresh but it
doesn't dry well either.

The stronger herbs: tarragon, basil, oregano etc dry well but often the
character changes as they dry. Depending on the situation this change
may be important to you or not. For some purposes the fresh form is
better (even essential) for other purposes the dry form is.

For example to make pesto, dried basil just doesn't work at all. To
make bernaise sauce fresh tarragon may just as good as dried, but in
cases where you cannot come by one of the more pungent cultivars (or it
is the wrong season) the dried form may be better as the commercial
growers use such cultivars and harvest them when they are at their peak
of pungency.

The reason for these differences is in the essential (volatile) oils
that are lost or changed during the drying process. Different plants
have different oils ( that's why they taste different - duh!) and some
survive the process and others don't.

As for the effect of freezing I cannot say as much but all other things
being equal you will lose less essential oils (and hence flavour) during
freezing than during drying. Freezing will damage the cells and so
change the texture (so does drying of course) but as herbs are often
chopped/ground up this doen't matter so much unless you require the lush
greeness of a fresh basil leaf on your Italian cheese salad.

David

I think you are off-base on tarragon. Dried tarragon has little flavour but
freezing it works, and so does making tarragon vinegar. As for your remark
about cultivars of tarragon, I understand that French tarragon doesn't set
seed, so all the tarragon plants in the world are clones, and therefore the
same strain.

(Russian tarragon is a different herb, inferior in for cuisinary use.)

"David Hare-Scott" wrote in message
...

"Taylors in Japan" wrote in message
...
Thanks for the advice. I dried the parsley last night to drain any
excess
water from cleaning--the cold dry climate here in Japan this time of
year
takes care of that nicely. I just finished putting it in the freezer.

I have another question: what herbs are best frozen and what are best
dried?


The subtle herbs like parsley, chervil etc don't dry well. Coriander
(cilantro) leaf is not what I would call subtle when fresh but it
doesn't dry well either.

The stronger herbs: tarragon, basil, oregano etc dry well but often the
character changes as they dry. Depending on the situation this change
may be important to you or not. For some purposes the fresh form is
better (even essential) for other purposes the dry form is.

For example to make pesto, dried basil just doesn't work at all. To
make bernaise sauce fresh tarragon may just as good as dried, but in
cases where you cannot come by one of the more pungent cultivars (or it
is the wrong season) the dried form may be better as the commercial
growers use such cultivars and harvest them when they are at their peak
of pungency.

The reason for these differences is in the essential (volatile) oils
that are lost or changed during the drying process. Different plants
have different oils ( that's why they taste different - duh!) and some
survive the process and others don't.

As for the effect of freezing I cannot say as much but all other things
being equal you will lose less essential oils (and hence flavour) during
freezing than during drying. Freezing will damage the cells and so
change the texture (so does drying of course) but as herbs are often
chopped/ground up this doen't matter so much unless you require the lush
greeness of a fresh basil leaf on your Italian cheese salad.

David

Andrew Ostrander wrote:

I think you are off-base on tarragon. Dried tarragon has little flavour but
freezing it works, and so does making tarragon vinegar. As for your remark
about cultivars of tarragon, I understand that French tarragon doesn't set
seed, so all the tarragon plants in the world are clones, and therefore the
same strain.

My dried tarragon is quite unlike hay. It's rather a lot like fresh
tarragon, in fact, and it, too, needs the caution "a little goes a _long_
way".
Perhaps you have inferior drying methods? I bundle'em up and hang'em high,
and when they're dry (about 10 days) I strip the leaf off the stems and
store that in a dark cupboard in a tight glass jar.

Henriette

--
Henriette Kress, AHG Helsinki, Finland
Henriette's herbal homepage: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed
Best of RHOD: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/rhod

I guess I will have to try again next year to dry some, but I still observe
that mine stayed dried-out in sauces, unlike leaves that were frozen or
preserved in vinegar.

"Henriette Kress" wrote in message
newsan.2003.12.12.19.33.59.56984@hetta...
Andrew Ostrander wrote:

I think you are off-base on tarragon. Dried tarragon has little flavour
but
freezing it works, and so does making tarragon vinegar. As for your
remark
about cultivars of tarragon, I understand that French tarragon doesn't
set
seed, so all the tarragon plants in the world are clones, and therefore
the
same strain.

My dried tarragon is quite unlike hay. It's rather a lot like fresh
tarragon, in fact, and it, too, needs the caution "a little goes a _long_
way".
Perhaps you have inferior drying methods? I bundle'em up and hang'em high,
and when they're dry (about 10 days) I strip the leaf off the stems and
store that in a dark cupboard in a tight glass jar.

Henriette

--
Henriette Kress, AHG Helsinki, Finland
Henriette's herbal homepage: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed
Best of RHOD: http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/rhod