Learn how to harvest rosemary from your herbaceous plant garden for using it fresh , drying , or freezing .
SHARON STREETER
Rosemary is a staple fiber in many herbaceous plant gardens . Though it ’s not a especially hardy plant life — in Zone 7 and below , it is typically uprise as an annual or overwintered indoors — it iseasy to growand requires little sustainment .
Credit:SHARON STREETER
Despite rosemary being an easy - going plant life , when it come to glean the aromatic leaves for cooking , it ’s on the tricky side . Overharvesting or harvesting at the wrong clock time may accidentally damage your plant and make it less productive .
hear how to avoid vulgar pitfalls when harvesting rosemary so you ’ll get to enjoy healthy rosemary plant all season long .
When to Harvest Rosemary
Regularly harvesting rosemary encourage plants to produce more leaves and staunch and develop a bushier emergence habit . However , fresh plants should not be harvested until they extend to a acme of 6 to 8 inches . Especially in their first year , rosemary plant are slow agriculturalist .
If you have started your rosemary flora from come , it may take the works a twelvemonth or more to contact a harvestable sizing . Rosemary originate from cuttings or baby’s room starts is usually quick to be harvested in its first time of year .
Pruning rosemary plantsand harvesting the herb go handwriting in hand . Unpruned rosemary flora become overgrown and woody with unsightly bald patches . Pruning Rosmarinus officinalis provides you with peck of refreshed Rosmarinus officinalis for cooking and drying .
Rosemary grows from springtime through free fall and goes dormantduring the wintertime . For the estimable smack , cut rosemary in outpouring and summer immediately before the plant flower . If possible , do your harvest home in the former dayspring when rosemary leaves curb the high concentration of explosive oil .
In tender climate , rosemary is often harvested yr - cycle ( it is an evergreen ) , but in cooler area , it is usually pick in smaller quantities in spring and summer , and then the remnant of the plant is harvested in fall before wintertime . If your winters are too cold-blooded to farm rosemary outside , move it insidefor the winter .
How to Harvest Rosemary
Depending on the size of the plant and how much you need , you could harvest a few twig or larger quantities for freeze or drying .
Rosemary plants have both new , tender , light green stems and older woody stems . Both are eatable ; however , it ’s best to invalidate cutting rosemary back into the woody section of the industrial plant as this make unsightly bald patch of stem that wo n’t produce leaves .
Use sharp , clean scissors or pruners to cut the top 2 to 3 inches of new , conciliatory stems . Make your cuts directly above a set of rosemary leaves to promote plant life to branch out . figure out your room around the plant this path , harvest home and clipping as you go , to give your plant a unvarying look .
Unlike a large , established rosemary flora , from which you could harvest regularly , smaller , younger rosemary plants should be harvest more sparingly . To invalidate overharvesting , never find fault more than one - third of your works ’s stems at once , and give your Rosmarinus officinalis a few weeks to recover if you take a sizeable harvesting .
If you’regrowing rosemary as an annual , there is no harm in clipping the entire works off at the land tune before wintertime .
How to Store Rosemary
Place cut stem in a trash meet with 1 inch of water system and store them in the electric refrigerator . spread over the top of the rosemary with a plastic bag to preclude it from drying out . exchange the water daily . They will keep for a hebdomad or two . If you do n’t have the room in your electric refrigerator to put in rosemary in this manner , wrapping rosemary in a dry paper towel and hive away it in a plastic zip - tie bag in your crisper drawer . The root wo n’t last as long as when stored in water .
To keep rosemary freshly longer , freeze halt whole or hack them andfreeze themin internal-combustion engine regular hexahedron trays with oil or water . instead , dry rosemaryin a food dehydrator or attend your herbs in easy bundles in a fond , ironic position with good aura flow .
Once the leaves are thoroughly dry and crispy , strip them off the stems and put in them in airtight containers in a warm , dry place for up to one year . To grind dried rosemary into a powder , use a coffee James Mill or mortar and muller . However , to get the good smell out of your herb , it ’s best to grind them up just before you use them .
Frequently Asked Questions
No , it ’s best to avoid wash rosemary before storing it in the fridge . Extra moisture may cause rosemary to develop mold . slipstream rosemary just before you practice it .
Unlike herbs like cilantro , which have a very limited harvest windowpane , rosemary is a perennial that can be glean frequently . Rosemary plants that are at least one year honest-to-god and have batch of tidy new stems can be harvested up to weekly .
Rosemary is used in Mediterranean culinary art to flavorpoultry such as chickenandmeat lulu . Rosemary stems come in ready to hand as kabob skewers or for cocktails . Non - culinary use include handmade soaps and potpourri mixes .
