Preserving the Herb Harvest - Herbed Salt

 I enjoy growing herbs. Due to their strong fragrance, most are deer/critter resistant (well, except basil....deer LOVE it). The best part about herbs is the MANY ways you can use them.

Recently, I made some Herbed salt. I'd been seeing lots of pins about it on Pinterest. Even though this is something new to me, it seemed pretty easy. Here's the basic process.....

 

 



Thoroughly wash herbs and pat dry. Remove leaves from the stems (The above photo is a mix of chives, basil, oregano and lemon thyme).

 

 

Finely chop the herbs.

 

 



 Place chopped herbs into cleaned, sterilized jars. I'm at the experimenting stage so, I used about 2 oz. of chopped herbs for every half-pint jar. If you want specific recipes you might want to check out some of these pins.



Then, I filled the jars with Sea  salt (you could also use Kosher salt). Mix to combine salt with the herbs.  Leave the mixture open for several hours to dry (stir to break up any clumping) before putting lids on to store. If you want your mixture finer, you can also place everything in a food processor and pulse until the desired consistency is reached. Ladle into clean, sterilized jars. Again let mixture dry several hours before putting lids on the jars.

 The herbs will infuse flavor into the salt and will be great for cooking or BBQ rubs.

One of the herbed salts I made was a lemon & thyme salt. I took the zest of 4 medium sized lemons and 2 Tbsp. of chopped lemon thyme and mixed with 1 cup of sea salt. It smells AMAZING!

I'm planning on including a jar or two of these herbed salts in gift baskets for my foodie friends. Wouldn't they be great combined with other kitchen-y items like dishcloths, potholders or tea-towels?

Happy Herb Harvesting!

Lori