Saturday, November 14, 2009

I have a very nice rosemary plant and it needs cutting back a bit to make the plant fill out a bit.?

Does anybody know if you can freeze the cuttings or do you dry them out and place into bottles. What is the best system if you can save some.

I have a very nice rosemary plant and it needs cutting back a bit to make the plant fill out a bit.?
There's a case to be made for not preserving the leaves from cuttings taken now at all. Having just negotiated winter *and* the plants just having made the huge effort of full flowering, the volatile oils contents in the leaves are at their lowest ebb, so the leaves' culinary usefulness at this pont, compared with the fresh shoots (the ones you're trying to encourage by cutting back in the first place) when more mature in late summer %26amp; early autumn, is debatable.





That said -- waste not want not -- were you to dry the best of the leaves instead, you would that way at least concentrate what volatile oils there are, to produce a quantity of workaday dried rosemary for backgound use in a dish, which could still serve you quite satisfactorily in that role.





Except when in suspension in an already cooked dish, rosemary denatures when frozen, in exactly the same way that it does when the actual plant is ravaged by a prolonged, or intense frost outside.





Hope this helps.
Reply:I would suggest planting the cuttings and making new plants to sell - that's what I would do - are you looking to get rid of the cuttings?? Ha ha.
Reply:GREAT question!





To freeze it, place specific amounts (ie, one teaspoon) in ice trays and fill with water and freeze until needed. That way, you have a teaspoon of rosemary when you need it.





I had a beautiful rosemary plant. I trimmed it and put the cuttings on tomato sauce that went in the freezer, and one cutting in fresh antipasta.





My cat took care of the rest and the plant died.
Reply:I have never tried to freeze my rosemary, although with other herbs, I put them into ice-cube trays w/water and freeze, so I have "herb cubes" when I'm cooking..should work with rosemary. I usually dry mine - either hang the branches up out of the way until dry, or lay out on newspaper until dry...can take up to a week depending on temperature conditions. Then I just back-scrape the rosemary leaves off and store in containers.


If you have a bunch, try just freezing a little of it .. see it it works!

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