Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions
Things You'll Need:
- Drying Screens Or Racks
- Baskets
- Garden Knives
- Garden Shears
- Gardening Gloves
- Olive (not Virgin) Oil
- Unsalted Butter
- Glass Storage Jars
- Ice Cube Trays
- Plastic Storage Bags
- Twine
- Twine
- Baskets
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Step 1
Cut both leaves and flowers of thyme as you need them throughout the growing season. Don't worry about taking too much at a time - the more you cut, or even shear back, the more it will grow.
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Step 2
Store fresh thyme leaves in plastic bags in the refrigerator.
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Step 3
Retain maximum flavor by freezing thyme. Freeze branches on cookie sheets, then strip off the leaves, put them into plastic containers and return them to the freezer. Or mix finely chopped thyme with just enough olive oil or butter to bind them together, and freeze the mixture in ice cube trays.
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Step 4
Dry entire branches of thyme on racks, or tie them into bunches and hang them in a dry, well-ventilated spot away from direct sun. Store dried leaves in airtight jars.
Comments
MORTYB said
on 10/10/2007 Heelo, I did the frozen method. Froze the stems, stropped the leaves and froze them. Used it a couple od days later...the lemon frag. was there..but the flavor was not 100%..but still very good. I used a tad more. Way better than dried. It must be cooked into the dish as the color has darken from freezing and doesn't look fresh and green. thank you so much for the advise.
mortyb
happygardener said
on 8/15/2007 You say the more you harvest thyme the better it grows. Well, whoever said that didn't prune theirs. I pruned back a BEAUTIFULL thyme to dry it and the plant NEVER came back. It died deader than a door nail!