Friday, August 10, 2012

How to Freeze Basil

I finally made a point to get out into the garden today and prune back the basil plants that have now gone to seed. Whoops!  Now that the chickens have been confined to their run and are no longer trampling through gardens, the basil plants were able to regain their posture a bit over the last week or so and were in desperate need of some TLC.   As with everything else in the garden, it all seems to comes at once.  I knew there was no way I would be using the amount of basil that I harvested today any time soon,  so I did a little research and devised a plan to freeze my basil in ice cube trays, bag it up and keep it in the fridge for future occasions when a recipe called for a few tablespoons of chopped basil!  Here is what to do:

store basil from the garden over winter, urban, homestead, prepper, harvest
Harvest your basil.


Pull basil leaves from the stems and place them into a food processor or blender.
Pull the leaves from the stems and place them into a food processor or blender.  

basil and olive oil in food processor
Pour one to two tablespoons of olive oil into the food processor 


pulse basil leaves
Pulse!


.....until it looks like this.


store basil from the garden over winter, urban, homestead, prepper, ice cube tray
Spoon about a tablespoon of basil into each section of your ice cube tray. 


Add a little water to help the cubes hold their shape.


Place the ice cube trays in the freezer for a few hours .

  
frozen cube of basil ready for storage, freeze
Once the cubes are frozen, remove the basil cubes.... 


frozen basil in ziplock bag
...and bag them up in a freezer bag, throw them back into the freezer and use as needed!  

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8 comments :

  1. Cool! I usually just roll leaves in parchment paper and freeze them in a ziploc.

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  2. Great idea. I will try this for the next harvest! :)

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  3. Wow terrific I have soooooo much Basil this year. Do your chickens ever eat any of yours? Mine dont they are too interested in the strawberries and the tomatoes!;)

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    Replies
    1. We have our chickens contained this year so they wont. They plucked our entire gardens half bald last year. This year we are expecting a much larger harvest! LOL

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  4. Thanks this great.. My bail plants get so big this helps with less ware. Waste not want not.

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  5. I do even less when freezing my basil.
    After breaking off all the leaves off the stems, I just stuff as many as I can fit into a medium sized ziplock bag (or whatever you have, really), and chuck into the freezer.
    When you need some for cooking, just quickly grab a handful of them, and crush them in your hands a bit (they crumble into pieces, like potato chips!)over the pot/bowl. Put the bag back in the freezer straight away before they thaw out.

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  6. When you put them in olive oil they taste more like they've been freshly picked. I 've never used water though. I'll have to give it a try. Thanks

    ReplyDelete

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