[Smudgeboy]

Wotcha folks

A couple of years ago I planted a small Rosemary plant in my front garden - and it's gone mad! At planting, it was about four shoots and about 6" high.

It's now over 3 feet high and has a two-foot spread. Which, obviously, is fantastic, it must really like that spot, but it was getting a little out of control.

So today I went out and cut it back - basically by cutting most of the outside shoots at the base, leaving it still high, but not nearly as wide. With the result that I now have a bucketful (and I mean a bucket, STUFFED) of rosemary.

Obviously there's only so much you can do with it. I'm going to try and propogate some into new plants (and I've found a thread on here about that  ), but the rest I guess I need to use quickly or dry and store.

So, after all that rambling, my question is: Is there a tried and tested method for drying and storing rosemary? Do you leave it on the stalk until it dries, or strip it off? Do you dry it outside or indoors or even in an oven? Chop it up first, afterwards, or not at all? Etc etc.

Any contributions gratefully receieved.

[Smudgeboy]

Interestingly (replying to my own post!) a lot of people on other forums and websites seem to recommend freezing rosemary as better for retaining flavour.

Maybe I'll try a bit of both.

[Yorkie]

Freezing is certainly quicker.  You could either store it whole in bags, or chop some up, place in ice cube trays and freeze with water - you can remove the ice cubes once frozen and bag them up.

[madcat]

I've frozen and dried it in the past - but honestly, whats the point?  The bush is there and growing all year, you have to keep it trimmed to keep it from taking over the universe so I came to the conclusion than it wasn't worth the effort, I'd use the fresh off the bush. 

Dried though, the branches smell like heaven on the barbi.  Flares up so you cant put it on while cooking but lovely for sitting out under the stars on a warm summers evening ...<drifts off into dreams..>

[sclarke624]

Definately proprogate some of those cuttings, don't put it off.  We had two rosemary bushes, large like yours after just a couple of years.  Cut one back died, cut the other back died, luckily I had mad a cutting anyway.  Not saying cutting back killed them may just be coincidence, they were in a pine needle laden soil, ehich may have not helped and also they were a bit exposed where they were, and the sea salty air.