Freezing or drying "hardy" herbs

Question

I have some decently sized herb plants in my garden. In their respective prime I like to chop and freeze herbs like chives and parsley, while stuff like basil is only really good fresh.

"Hardy" plants like sage, laurel and rosemary though? I have no idea. Would you rather chop these or leave them whole, and rather freeze them or dry them (and how do you dry herbs at home?)

My goal would be to preserve the flavour of the herbs as much as possible, to be able to make anything from sage butter to rosemary oven potatos.

Answer 1

Sage, Laurel and Rosemary can all be dried and retain a lot of their flavor. In fact, for laurel, the flavor is enhanced by drying. There is little to be gained from freezing these, and I suspect that chopping beforehand would decrease their flavor components significantly.

For Rosemary and (Bay) Laurel - washed sprigs (twigs with leaves attached) can be bundled and hung in a warm, dry environment (from the ceiling perhaps or in a hot-water closet/cupboard if you have one) until dried. You can then pull off the required amount and use, or pick out the stems and store the leaves as you would any dried herb.

For Sage, I would pluck the leaves, wash, then spread on an absorbent surface (paper towel, clean and dry towel etc.) and allow to dry in a warm, dry environment. The dried leaves can then be stored as-is, or crumbled and stored in a bottle. This also works for Oregano and Thyme, though the soft stems can also be included for each of these.