Spoiled Herbs

I hate nothing worse than opening my refrigerator to a drawer full of rotten herbs. What a waste!  I often wish I could just pick out the exact amount of herbs I wanted at the grocery store rather than buying them in a bunch because needless to say I never seem to finish the bunch and I am left with a bunch of expensive spoiled herbs.  That is why I love keeping a herb garden during the summer.  I have a variety of herbs to choose from at arm’s length all summer long.  Even living in a small apartment in Cambridge I kept a small window gardening kit filled with herbs.  One of the projects on my husband’s long list of projects to do this year is to build a raised garden in our yard now that we have the space to enjoy it.  In the mean time, I found this blog post discussing how to keep basil from spoiling.  I plan to try this the next time I purchase basil because right now I have a large bunch of brown basil that I bought earlier this week.  http://marcsala.blogspot.com/2007/08/save-basil-tip-to-keep-it-fresh.html

UPDATE

So I went ahead and tried the tips I found in the blog above with my dying basil and it came back to life!  I cut the stems of the basil and placed the plant in a glass jar filled with water.  I then poked a few holes in a plastic bag and used it to cover the plant and placed the jar on the window sill in my kitchen.  I wasn’t able to save the leaves that had browned but the wilted leaves came back to life and I am still using the same basil plant a week and a half later.  I will definitely use this tip again the next time I purchase basil.