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HARVESTING HINTS
Once the herbs are growing happily in your garden or containers they will provide a source for culinary adventure, flavorful teas, and fragrant combinations. It is in these uses that they distinguish themselves from other plants and truly show their qualities as herbs. First, however, the leaves and seeds must be harvested.
Using Fresh Herbs
The leaves of most culinary herbs such as basil, chives, marjoram, mints, parsley, rosemary, sage, and thyme have enough flavor throughout the growing season that you can harvest them to use while fresh at any time. Pick only healthy green leaves - not yellowed or dead ones. Be very careful, however, that you don't injure the plant's growth by pulling off too many leaves from one stem or plant - particularly with young ones.
When the herbs are large and full enough, you can cut sprigs from the ends of stems. This is called pinching. It also stimulates new growth, causing the plant to become fuller and bushier than it would if allowed to grow unchecked. If you want flowers for bouquets or seeds for
planting the following spring, let a few stems grow and mature into blossoms.
Though you will enjoy using the herbs fresh, you will probably also want to dry some for winter cooking and for making fragrant preparations such as potpourris and sachets. Keep this in mind while picking in the summer so that you will leave enough foliage for a large fall harvest.
How to Pick for Drying
Although herbs may be cut and used fresh at almost any time, the main harvest of leaves and seeds for preserving comes during the blooming period. Herbs tend to lose some of their flavor during the drying process. The best time to harvest them for drying is when the flowers first open. It is then that the oils which give each herb its distinctive flavor and aroma (held in tiny glands in the leaves) become most concentrated. The only exceptions are: hyssop, lavender, rosemary, and thyme-cut them when the blooms are fullest; and sage harvest it when the buds first appear.
Choose a sunny, dry morning just after the dew has dried from the leaves but before the sun is hot. Some annuals bloom early in the summer, and if you do not cut them back too much this first time they will regrow enough by fall fora second harvest. If you are harvesting annuals in the fall you can simply cut them to the ground.
Shrubby perennial herbs (such as lavender, marjoram, and rosemary) should be cut back annually after blooming to encourage compact growth; this is also an easy way to harvest leaves and flowers for drying. Cut back about half the length of the current year's growth.
Harvesting Seeds and Flowers
Some of the herbs such as anise, caraway, coriander, and dill produce seeds that are tasty on pastries and other dishes. As soon as the seed heads or capsules turn brown-but before they fully ripen and scatter the seeds- cut the entire seed head or stem into a paper bag. Do this on a warm, dry day.
Seeds to be used for future planting should be harvested when the seed capsules begin to yellow and are about ready to drop off. Flowers for drying, fresh arrangements, and potpourris can be cut with a knife or pruning shears. Choose newly opened ones that are bright and fresh.