Herb questions????

I am a first time veggie / herb grower and I have some questions about harvest.

1. Cilantro. My cilantro looks great, started from seed- but I have been trying to wait till I had tomatoes to use it in salsa- (tomatoes still green green green). But last week I found it was bolting. The top was sprouting thiner finer foliage- so I cut it down to the flatter leaves- this week same thing- so I repeated. Can I use this top foliage?? I'm afraid by the time my tomatoes are ripe- my cilantro will have tired out- any suggestions/comments/experience is appreciated.
2. Dill- pretty much same question as above?
3. Harvesting Herbs- what is the best way to store them in the fridge for short term use?
Thanks

I store herbs in a glass of water (like a vase) in the fridge. Most keep well for a good week that way, and stay good and fresh.

I want to know the answers to your questions 1&2 as well. My summer savory is already flowering, and so is my rosemary.

i can onlh speak about basil but i think they are all the same. sometimes i get lazy and notice that my basil is getting flowers on top. i just remove the flowers and thats all there is to it. the plants just keep on growing.

i'm sure someone here will have your answer.

Nudge, nudge, you will find a wealth of information in the Herbs Forum too:))))))

i had cilantro too. in fact i had an entire salsa row. peppers, tomatoes jalepenos and cilantro. once it got warm the cilantro kicked the bucket, now i have the rest and pick up cilantro at walmart produce dept. :(

"Cilantro"...one of my favorite plants cus you get 3 separate "herbs" from only one seed!

The seed is considered Coriander. As a matter of fact you should go to your kitchen and take out some coriander seeds and plant them; an inexpensive way to supply yourself w/an ongoing crop. (Of course, if the label says "toasted" or the like, no go!)

When the plants declare and the leaves are flat it is considered "cilantro". As the plant matures the foliage becomes more feathery and many folks in U.S. will refer to it as "Chinese Parsley". (However, DG member MaVie once told me there is another plant that Orientals refer to as Chinese parsley and it is not from the cilantro/coriander family.)

If you let the cilantro plant bolt and go to seed you can collect the seed and start all over. Pretty cool cycle, eh?

For several years I would designate an area as a perpetual cilantro bed. Allow the plants to grow, harvest what I like, allow some to mature and drop seeds. Oftentimes the seeds will germinate and I'll have a second crop later in the year.

As for dill, it is so slow growing here that we just pick to foliage when mature and also allow some to go to seed for pickling.

Shoe.

what i do with cilantro is after washing it make sure it is dry then wrap in paper towel ,put in ziplock bag will keep for about 2 weeks.
Also what you can do is if you have a food processor is make a pesto out of it freeze then when ready to make your salsa , just defrost and add it. Some people like the whole leaves cut up in salsa as i do, When it is winter and i ma craving some good salsa or pesto itake it out of freezer , i do this with all my herbs .
hope it helps
best
sue

Cool. Thanks for all the help guys. I think I will make up some Pesto to freeze so I dont lose it.
Thanks,
hillary

Cilantro is so great! One of the most common cooking herbs in our household (besides Mexican or Tex-Mex, lots of Indian and other Asian recipes often benefit from a little sprinkling of fresh from the garden cilantro right before serving). This is probably not helpful advice at the moment, but maybe for the future: plant it in waves. We always go with succession planting on cilantro for exactly the reasons you described in your initial post. Timing is everything with fresh ingredients.

Shoe's idea above of the "perpetual cilantro bed" is quite intriguing. We go a slightly different route, with perpetual plantings (about every three weeks) in whatever little corner of the garden is available at the time (e.g. when a little bed of lettuce is over the hill, done and gone, it gets pulled and replaced with a new seeding of cilantro). Our first round of summer cilantro is long gone but currently we've got one little patch at the "5 inches and growing lots of leaves" stage and another bunch of little guys at the " just popped out of the ground last week" stage. You probably know, by the way, that cilantro germination takes awhile and steady moisture during this germination phase is important. Ready and waiting when our Zone 5a tomatoes and peppers are ripe for good salsa. You might still be able to pull off at least one round of new cilantro in Zone 4a if you plant some immediately. Ready to use in September when you might be pulling in some real nice heirloom tomatoes or ripened peppers and other terrific produce from the late summer garden.

Good luck!

Some herbs will do well in a vase of water in the fridge, others, like fresh basil, will turn black quickly. Basil doesn't like cold. Also, your basil plants will produce more, stay sweeter and last longer if you havest it before the blossoms start. Once the stems have six leaves (three sets of two) this will trigger blooming. I harvest mine as soon as I count the six leaves on the stem. We've harvested 3 pounds of basil off six plants in the past three weeks. That's been enough for a quart of fresh pesto (basil, pine nuts, fresh garlic, olive oil and parmesan). When we harvest more than can be used fresh, we chop it up in the food processor and fill ice cube trays with the chopped herbs or pesto. The herb cubes can then be unmoulded and placed in a freezer bag to use later. You can also just put the chopped herbs in a ziplock, press the bag flat, and store these layered in the freezer. When you want some, you break off what you need.

Thanks, garden_mermaid on when to harvest basil. When you say harvest, do you pull up the plant, or simply cut off some of it and let it grow again. I have been growing basil for a while, but have trouble keeping it going all summer. I am sure my entire basil output for a year has never reached one pound and I fuss over it. Maybe I am just not fussing right.