Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Greens #2

Experience the vitality of fresh garden greens.
The more common cooking greens, arugula, collards, kale, mustard greens, turnip greens, beet greens, Swiss chard, dandelion greens, spinach, and radish tops - may be used interchangeably. Experiment with the different greens available to you and get to know their unique and mild to pungent flavors.
Their vibrancy and freshness are a gift of flavor and health. Greens are packed with nutrition. Properly prepared, greens offer generous amount of Vitamins A and C, some B vitamins, and folic acid, as well as minerals such as calcium and iron. Greens are very high in dietary fiber and low in calories. In the health world, dark leafy greens also receive attention for their roles in disease prevention.
So don't forget to eat your greens.
From Asparagus to Zucchini,  Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition



Asian-Style Saute
2 tbsp sesame oil
3-4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 pound mixed greens, coarsely chopped
1 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp tamari
fresh ground pepper
Heat oil in wok or large skillet. Add garlic and saute 2 minutes, remove and set aside. Saute greens until just wilted. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar, tamari, pepper and garlic. Serve as a side dish or with rice.


Will's Collard Greens    Will Allen, Growing Power
this recipe works for all kinds of cooking greens
1 bunch collard greens  separate stems and cut into small bites
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar/honey
1 tsp minced garlic

Wash and stack the leaves, roll them and slice thinly. Heat oil in medium pan add salt, pepper, garlic, stem pieces and sugar. Add greens and cook until tender. Stir often to avoid burning the greens.


Fresh Greens Pasta Pie  Crystal Lake Gardens

6 ounces vermicelli
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
5 eggs
2 tsp cooking oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cups chopped fresh greens
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
several shakes hot pepper sauce if desired

Cook vermicelli, drain. Stir butter and parmesan cheese into hot pasta. Beat 2 of the eggs and stir well into pasta. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased plate and use a spoon to shape the pasta into a pie shell, cover with aluminum foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
Heat oil in a skillet, add onion, cook until tender. Beat remaining 3 eggs and conbine with spinach, mozzarella, milk, seasonings and onions. Spoon mixture into pasta shell. Cover with aluminum foil.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes, uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.



Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Shishito Peppers

Shishito Peppers whether eaten as a snack or incorporated into a main dish, crunchy, sweet shishito peppers are delicious and occasionally pack a punch—one in ten are superspicy!
 Saute peppers in olive oil, over high heat, until they just begin to blister- serve hot, sprinkled with sea salt. Excellent for tempura, yakitori, and sauteed.

Sautéed shishitos are absolutely the best thing to nibble on with drinks, and they're insanely easy to prepare. Deborah Madison
    1. Here's what you do. Heat a little olive oil in a wide sauté pan until it is good and hot but not smoking. Add the peppers and cook them over medium, tossing and turning them frequently until they blister. They shouldn't char except in places. Don't rush. It takes 10 to 15 minutes to cook a panful of peppers. When they're done, toss them with sea salt and add a squeeze of fresh lemon. Slide the peppers into a bowl and serve them hot. You pick them up by the stem end and eat the whole thing, minus the stem, that is.
    You can probably do fancier, cheffy things with them, but they're terrific like this. For variety, I sometimes use a little toasted sesame oil instead of olive oil and finish them with togarashi. If you have leftovers, an unlikely event in my experience, chop off the stems and put the peppers in an omelet or some scrambled eggs.  

5-Minute Blistered Shishito Peppers Recipe
 Chief Foodiecrush-er
 Many recipes call for adding oil to the pan before adding the peppers but when I’ve done this in the past, the smoke from the oil is pretty heavy. And I hate a smoky kitchen. Searing in a dry pan did the job just fine, minus the smoke.
 I used three different flavored salts for flavoring the peppers: Natural Crystal Flakes with Wild Garlic, Smoked Applewood Salt and Truffle Salt. It was fun to experiment and see how the different salts flavored the same basic preparation of the peppers. You could of course use plain kosher salt or any other salt you have a hankering for. I think a saffron flavored salt would be dyn-o-mite.

A hot cast iron pan creates the perfect char for this bite-size pepper appetizer tossed with flavored salts.
Ingredients
  • 8 ounces shisito peppers
  • ½ lemon, sliced
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Kosher or flavored salts
Instructions
  1. Heat a large cast iron skillet over high heat until the pan is hot. Add the peppers to the hot skillet and cook the peppers, turning occasionally then add a few slices of lemon. Cook until the peppers become fragrant and begin to blister, and nudge the lemons so they don't stick, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil plus a squeeze more lemon then sprinkle with flavored salts. Serve immediately.

Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Information about CSA's and tips to use your vegetables

CSA: 9 Things Your Farmer Wished You Knew
CSA stands for “community supported agriculture,” and it refers to a defined group of individuals who have pledged to support a local farm, to share the risks and benefits of food production with the growers. “CSA” can be used as an adjective to describe the economic model of a farm, a noun to refer to the share of vegetables received, and a verb, meaning, to participate in the know-your-farmer, visit-your-farm and cook seasonally movement by eating a diverse weekly assortment of always fresh and sometimes unusual vegetables.
1. Foremost, We Are Farmers
Not magicians, nutritionists, psychics, dictators, cheerleaders, or Rachael Ray. Our primary aim is to plan & plow, seed & plant, grow crops not weeds, and harvest at peak freshness and flavor. We’re not here to feed you per se, but to give you the tools (vegetables) to feed yourselves. We aim to inspire but we cannot possibly prepare you for what you are about to experience—your CSA is for you to discover. We also are not event planners, marketing managers, or customer service representatives, though we do try our best to be those things, checking emails over lunch or after dinner.
2. Our Compost is Your Compost
Pile in! Waste is the number one struggle listed by CSA-members, but it is not a burden you have to bear. If you know you won’t eat it, you can share it with a neighbor, you can put it in your freezer until winter, or you can compost it. Encountering the full-circle of your diet is part of the mindfulness that a CSA might instill in you, if you let it. Think fertility not filth. There is a learning curve to CSA, and waste is part of it.
3. Ugly Food is Good Food
And without you to eat it, we’d waste a lot—of time, energy, land, and money. No, two small and/or ghastly celeriac will not make a soup, but they can add a certain salty tang (no strings attached) to your favorite roast or stew. And don’t you think Siamese twin zucchini have a certain charm?      Note from us here at Blue Spring Farm:  Our CSA members get the first harvests of crops and they get the best.
The ugly vegetables are the ones we consume during the season or dry, freeze and can for our winter food supply. When we have more 2nds than we can deal with we take them to our local food back or offer them at discounted prices at the market.
4. Weird Vegetables are Crop Insurance
We also think they’re beautiful and undercelebrated and tasty and add biodiversity to our farms. We plant a huge array of vegetables because some things, inevitably, do not grow as planned. The sequence and severity of sun and rain create wildly different seasons with differing amounts of success across vegetable type and variety. This is not failure on the part of the farmer (generally) but inconsistency on the part of nature.
5. There Will Be Greens
We have several months of frozen ground every year, and tender green sprouts are the first to successfully emerge. It takes much more sunlight and significantly more time to grow buds, flowers, fruits, rhizomes, roots, and bulbs. Your first few CSA boxes will contain mostly greens because this is all the world can do with a seed in such short time. The rest of your CSA boxes might still contain a lot of greens. These are called “leaves.” In the plant world, everybody’s got ‘em. You have all winter to miss ‘em, so learn how to harness their extremely nutritious goodness while you can (turn your fridge down a couple degrees, get a juicer, make green smoothies, learn to veggie chip, and green-up your stirfrys, pasta, soups, quiche or risottos).
6. Farms are Not Grocery Stores
Our goal is not to give you everything you want in the amounts you think you need. That is the work of a magician. Or a grocery store. While we are working to learn how to best grow everything perfectly every season, this takes an enormous number of advanced skills and intimate knowledge of a piece of land. CSAs are also not market-stands, where we can afford to spend more time harvesting a smaller number of goods every week—things like beans and peas and cherry tomatoes that are expensive to harvest in large numbers by hand. CSAs are what we say they are and also what you make of them.
7. We are Not Capitalizing on a Trend
We aren’t really capitalizing on anything. To meet our customer’s expectations, we keep prices low. We always give you at least a little more than what you pay for, but usually significantly more. The vegetables are a labor of fourteen-hour-day love and minimum-wage love and also the fruits of exhaustion and working second jobs. Mostly, we believe in a movement that honors transparency and commitment, and that hopes for the day that physical labor and care for the land will eventually outlive chemical fertilizers and outrageous subsidies. Yes, your CSA is fun and challenging and healthy, but it is also a vote for small-scale, human-powered agriculture, which is bigger than you and really important.
8. Your CSA Might Just Change You
If you weren’t much for staying-in and cooking a meal using whole ingredients, you might be now. Accepting unknowns, working creatively within limitations, learning new ways of cooking, and adapting your diet to fit the seasons and the produce of your particular farm… these are the tenets of CSA. Picky eaters and people who don’t like vegetables, beware, a CSA could transform you, in a matter of seasons.
9. A CSA Might Not Be For You and That’s Okay
Before you buy a CSA, read the membership agreement. Shop around. Ask questions. CSAs help farmers in the off-season when they have the highest cost of pre-season materials, soil amendments, and seeds, but farmers have costs all year round, and there are other ways to directly support local farms: like the farmers market. Eating at restaurants whose sourcing you trust is another important part of the equation. You can also buy your Thanksgiving turkey direct, put away a side of grass-fed pork in your freezer, join a buying club, or try an egg or milk CSA—they tend to be more straightforward.
A mixed vegetable CSA is a commitment not everybody’s ready for, and there’s certainly a learning curve. It takes a few seasons to overcome the daikon radish and learn how to kohlrabi. It’s hard, we know! But don’t give up. There are many ways to support farmers, source ethically, and eat according to the seasons. So buy a cookbook, check online recipe sites and season your cast iron skillet. We’re all in this together.

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Getting Hooked On Cooking With CSA

by Katherine Deumling of Cook With What You Have
A CSA share offers a plethora of produce every week and with it varieties we may have never seen before, let alone cooked—a delight and a bit of a challenge, for sure.
Fresh, delicious vegetables chosen for me week after week is my idea of heaven. It hasn’t always been but I get more hooked every year. I’m hooked on the deliciousness, on not having to make any decisions about what vegetables to purchase, and on the creativity it inspires.
So, how does one get hooked?

Stock your Pantry, Two Ways:

Shop mostly to restock rather than for specific dishes. You’ll spend less time (and money) running to the store for last minute items and can instead spend your time cooking, eating, and creatively using what you already have.
This is a basic list but you certainly don’t need everything listed to cook many dishes. And, your pantry will reflect your particular taste. This is just a loose guide.

Purchased Goods for Pantry, Fridge and Freezer:

  • Lentils; French green, red, brown
  • Beans: black, pinto, white, chickpeas
  • Grains: brown and white rice, barley, farro, cornmeal/polenta, quinoa, pasta, couscous, bulgur
  • Seeds & nuts: sunflower, pumpkin, hazelnuts, walnuts, peanuts, almonds, etc.
  • Spices: cumin, coriander, mustard seeds, dried chilies, turmeric, caraway, paprika, cardamom
  • Herbs: thyme, oregano
  • Vinegars: cider, rice and red wine
  • Oils: olive, sunflower, coconut, sesame
  • Hot sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce
  • Dairy products
  • Eggs
  • Lemons and limes
  • Meat and fish in freezer: sausages, bacon, chicken, etc.

Semi-prepared Items:

When you have a little spare time you can add semi-prepared items to your fridge/ pantry that will make life much easier and tastier when you don’t have those extra few minutes to get a meal on the table.
  • Make a jar of vinaigrette and keep it in the fridge. Dress lettuces and greens as well as roasted vegetables or plain chickpeas/beans with the same vinaigrette, adding some chopped herbs and toasted seeds. Be creative!
  • Cook a good quantity of beans. Put beans out to soak before you go to work in the morning. Cook them that evening while you’re in the kitchen cooking something else for dinner anyway and have them ready for the next day or freeze half.
  • Cook twice as much rice, barley or farro as you need for any given meal and freeze half of it to make fried rice, rice and beans or a soup the following week on a particularly busy night when you need the head start.
  • Toast a cup of sunflower or pumpkin seeds and keep in a jar. Your salads will be better for them; your soups will have added crunch; your snacks will be cheaper and more nutritious!
  • Use a whole bunch of parsley or cilantro to make a quick, savory sauce with garlic, olive oil, lemon juice or vinegar. Stir in some thick yogurt for a creamy version. Having a flavorful component like this on hand means a plain bowl of rice or beans or a fried egg turns into a meal in no time.
  • Make chicken or any other meat, fish or vegetable stock and freeze.

Free Yourself from Strictly Following a Recipe & Learn to Improvise and Substitute.

The more you cook—and you will be cooking (!)—the easier and more fun it is to substitute and adapt as you go. Families of vegetables such as brassicas and alliums have certain common characteristics that in many cases let you substitute one for another. However, there is no real shortcut to learning how to do this so experiment as much as you can—you’ll have plenty of opportunity. Here are a few general guidelines to get you started.
Root vegetables love to be roasted as do brassicas like kohlrabi, cauliflower, romanesco, Brussels sprouts and broccoli. Cut up, tossed with a little oil and salt and roasted in a single layer, they are delicious as is or can serve as the foundation for soups, mashes, salads, etc.
Onions, like their allium compatriots, shallots, scallions, leeks and garlic, are pungent raw and quite sweet cooked. If you don’t have an onion by all means use a leek, though leeks are sweeter and you might add a little acidity to balance it out and leeks are not so good raw. Scallions (green onions) and shallots can be substituted for onions and vice versa in many recipes, raw or cooked.
Sweet potatoes, potatoes, celery root, rutabagas and turnips and sometimes winter squash can often stand in for one another in mashes, gratins, soups and stews.
Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, spring rabe and romanesco, all brassicas, have similar flavors and behave similarly in many dishes, though certainly not all. Mashed cauliflower is delicious but I would not mash Brussel sprouts.
Leafy greens are eminently substitutable. Chards, beet greens, kale and collards, are all good raw (very thinly sliced) when young and tender. They behave quite similarly when cooked and can be mixed and substituted for each other at will. Turnip, radish, and mustard greens are all tender and often interchangeable, though radish tops are a bit fuzzy raw. Make sure to blanch those.

Get Good at a Handful of Dishes that Showcase most any Vegetable.

It’s not so hard to keep up when you have a handful of recipes that can accommodate most any vegetable and in a variety of combinations.
A simple frittata elevates most vegetables, from leafy greens to peppers, peas, herbs, potatoes and both summer and winter squash.
Pan-fried vegetable fritters/savory pancakes/patties transform mounds of vegetables of all kinds into savory nuggets. Broccoli with parmesan, leftover mashed potatoes, leeks and plenty of parsley, rutabaga and carrot latkes, Japanese-inspired cabbage pancakes with scallions, sesame oil and soy sauce. . .
Fried rice with loads of finely chopped vegetables; simple Thai-style coconut milk curries; and soups and stir-fries, of course, are all good vehicles for delicious CSA produce.
A quick, stove top version of mac ‘n cheese with whatever vegetables you have, chopped finely, never fails to be devoured.
Finally, recipes can often accommodate way more vegetables than they call for. Perhaps a recipe calls for 1 lb of pasta and 3 cups of vegetables. Invert that ratio and use ½ lb of pasta and 6 cups of vegetables or just add more vegetables and have plenty of leftovers. You’ll figure out how to make such changes and have recipes and tips work for your particular selection of produce.
Get comfortable making a few of these dishes and make them your own, with different spices, herbs, cheeses.

And then. . .

Cooking (with a CSA) can in fact simplify one’s life—a way through the general madness and a treat for the senses and body. Yes, this is work and it takes time and organization but the deliciousness of that regular infusion of produce is well worth it!

Random photos

 Paper Mulch in beds for cabbages and broccoli.
 Cabbages planted and being covered with row cover to keep out insects. Broccoli and kale to be in the next bed over.
 Some of the lettuce varieties for this year.
 Cleaning, sanitizing and tagging CSA delivery bags.
 Randy and June seeding winter squash.
 Deep plowing and renovating about 1/4 acre of beds. Garlic and onions in the background.
 Carrots, first crop ready in a few weeks.
 Snap peas on the vine, harvest soon.
 Melons
 Summer squash
 Tomatoes starting to peak out of their wind shields.
 First crop of beans.
 Onions starting to bulb up.
 Harvesting Napa Cabbage
Loaded and ready for the cool room.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Turnip Greens

Turnip Greens Stir fry with Potato Recipe
Turnip Greens - 1 bunch
Red Onion - 1 large finely chopped / sliced  ( 2-3 medium size)
Potato - 1 medium size ( cut into small cubes )
Grated Coconut - 2tbsp
Garlic clove - 1
Green chillies - 2-3
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
For tempering :
Canola oil - 2 tbsp (can use any vegetable/cooking oil)
Mustard seeds - 1-2 tsp
Dry red chilli - 1-2
Curry leaves - 1 sprig (4-5 leaves)

Directions:
1. Wash the Turnip Greens well and place them on a kitchen towel or stand the leaves in a bowl to drain the water off. Chop the leaves into thin strips.
2. Using a mixer grinder, pulse together the grated coconut with garlic and green chillies , make sure it does not become a paste.
3. In a large frying pan heat the oil and crack mustard seeds , then add the dry red chillies and curry leaves and saute for 1 minute.
4. Add the red onions, cubed potato, turmeric powder and add salt and saute until onions becomes soft and pink.
5. Now toss in the leaves and cover and cook until the leaves are tender. (for about 5 -10mins)
6. Add the grinded coconut mixture and cook with the lid off on medium heat until the potato gets cooked and the entire thoran is dry.
7. Serve hot with plain rice and maybe some curry if you like.
Read more @ http://manjuseatingdelights.blogspot.com Manju's Eating Delights:


Spicy Skillet Turnip Greens
 A quick recipe for spicy skillet turnip greens for a comforting, home-cooked meal.
Serves: 6
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    1 medium onion, cut into wedges
    1 pound turnip greens, cleaned and chopped
    ¼ cup water
    pinch brown sugar
    ⅛ teaspoon red pepper flakes (adjust to preference)

Instructions
    Drizzle olive oil into skillet over medium heat.
    Add onion and cook until just tender, about 3 minutes. Then add ½ of turnip greens. Allow to cook down and add the remainder of the greens.
    Add water, brown sugar and red pepper flakes. Adjust the amount of red pepper to your personal taste.

Monday, May 30, 2016

Preserving Herbs

4 Alternatives To Drying Herbs

Keep those garden-fresh herbs handy all fall and winter without losing flavor.

July 31, 2015
Farmers’ markets and gardens are bursting with tasty fresh herbs this time of the year, so it is a perfect time not only to enjoy them fresh but also to try preserving them for use later—especially the frost-tender ones, such as basil and pineapple sage, which will be gone with the first nip of frost. Preserving fresh organic herbs is a great way to add flavor to your food, plus by not purchasing pesticide-grown plants you support a healthy environment at the same time! And you’ll save money by not having to buy tiny bottles of the dried stuff that loses its flavor before you have time to use it up.
Drying herbs couldn’t be simpler and is a great way to preserve parsley, rosemary, mint, thyme, and many others. But some herbs will be mere shadows of their former selves when dried, hardly worth the time and effort it takes to do it. Luckily, there are lots of simple alternatives, such as freezing and making herbal butters and vinegars, and pretty much all herbs are suited to these methods.

Freezing Herbs
Freezing herbs is easy, even if you have a small freezer. The simplest way to freeze herbs is to spread dry, clean whole or chopped leaves onto a baking sheet, freeze overnight, and put the frozen herbs into sealed containers in the freezer for later use. Frozen herbs prepared this way last for months before they start to get tired-looking. I like to freeze chives for sprinkling on baked potatoes in the dead of winter, when my herb patch is locked under snow.
For longer storage, freeze herbs by snipping leaves into small bits, packing the bits into an empty ice-cube tray, filling about ¾ full with water, and freezing; one measured tablespoon of herbs per cube is a good amount. The next day, top off with water and freeze again (this covers the floating bits with ice to prevent freezer burn). Pop the finished cubes into a sealed container in the freezer. Drop frozen cubes into soups, stews, and such, for fresh-cut flavor.
Pesto also freezes well—freeze it in an ice-cube tray and store the cubes in airtight containers in the freezer. First, discover the secret of making gorgeous, emerald-green pesto.
Herbal Butters
Another great method for preserving herbs is to make them into flavored butter and freeze that. Mince 1 part herbs (one type, or a blend) and mash into 2 parts softened organic butter, shape into a log, and freeze. Cut off slices of herb-flavored butter as needed to melt over vegetables, meat, or fish, or to sauté in recipes for the taste of summer all winter long. My favorite flavored butter is made with minced garlic and parsley, which makes awesome garlic bread!
Try making your own organic butter.
Herb-Flavored Vinegar
Herb-flavored vinegar is a delicious, pretty way to savor herbs long after the growing season is past. You don’t need any special equipment to make them; just reuse attractive glass bottles, so your tasty gifts will also be tasteful.
To make flavored vinegar, you will need bottles and cork stoppers to fit them (vinegar eats metal lids, even coated ones), enough good commercial vinegar to fill them, and fresh or dried herbs and spices. I like to use white-wine vinegar for delicate flavors like lemon balm, and organic apple-cider vinegar for more robust flavors like rosemary.
Wash and pat dry any fresh herbs—tarragon is a classic vinegar flavoring—and slide the whole leaves into the bottles, using a chopstick or wooden skewer as needed. Peeled garlic cloves and any kind of small peppers (slit down the side) are also nice choices for making flavored vinegar. Use about ½ cup of herbs per 2 cups of vinegar, or more if you want a very concentrated flavor. Fill the bottles with room-temperature vinegar and cork. Store in a cool, dark place. The flavor will continue to strengthen for 4 to 6 weeks. Use herb-flavored vinegars in salad dressings and marinades, splashed over veggies, or anywhere a recipe calls for vinegar or lemon juice.
To store vinegar longer, melt some beeswax (in a small steel can set in a pan of simmering water), and dip the corked end of the bottle into the wax to coat the top ¼ inch of the glass and the exposed cork. Let the wax harden, and repeat several times to build up a good coating. For extra-special gifting, drape a short length of ¼"- to ½"-wide ribbon over the top of the just-dipped bottle after the first dip. Hold the loose ends against the bottle neck and dip the top again, ribbon and all. The ribbon looks really classy, and makes it easy to remove the wax seal later.
Herb-Flavored Oils
You can also use your glass jars and corks for flavored oils. But placing herbs, garlic, peppers, fruit, and such, that contain even a trace of moisture into any oil is asking for trouble: The oil seals out the air and makes the perfect environment for botulism bacteria to thrive in the plant material. To be safe, you must store herb-flavored oils in the refrigerator and use them within a few weeks.
As an alternative, you can dry the herbs and other flavorings in a food dehydrator, or in the sun, until they are completely dry before adding them to a light-flavored organic olive oil or other cold-pressed oil. Add about 2 tablespoons of crushed dried herbs to 2 cups of oil.
 
 
 
 Preserving the Harvest from an Herb Garden

Techniques for freezing and drying herbs

 

Freezing

 Freezing preserves essential oils, and it's the oils that give herbs their flavor. Freezing herbs is easy. There's no need to blanch them; just rinse, remove the leaves from the stems and let them dry on a flat tray. You can then put a bunch of these leaves together in a bag and freeze them. You'll end up with a clump of herbs that you can cut up and add to sauces, soups, etc. Or you can freeze the leaves individually first on a flat tray (like a cookie sheet) and then place them in a plastic bag; when you open the bag later, you can pick out as many individual leaves as you like.

Another great method is to blend the herbs with oil to make a paste, which you can then freeze in a plastic container, bag or in ice cube trays. You can freeze just one kind of herb, such as basil, or make your own blend, such as oregano, thyme, parsley and sage.

Drying 

 Some herbs, such as oregano, sage and thyme, can be air-dried. Just hang small bunches in a well-ventilated room, away from light. When leaves are dry, remove them from their stems and store in an airtight jar.

Unless you live in a very arid climate, herbs such as basil and parsley, which have thick, succulent leaves, are better dried in a dehydrator. Drying can also be done in the oven at the lowest temperature setting you have. Watch carefully, herbs can burn at temperatures above 150! Once dry, store them in an airtight container.
Whatever method you choose, be sure to harvest herbs after the flower buds appear but before they open. That way, you'll be sure to get the highest concentration of essential oils. Early morning is the best time to pick your herbs, after the morning dew has evaporated but before the sun gets too hot.