Frozen Basil Cubes: The fastest, easiest way to cook with basil year round

You know when you're in the middle of summer and you have a ton of fresh herbs, and they're so delicious, but there's, like, so many, too many, and then suddenly you find yourself in the middle of winter, and you're longing, you're dying for that fresh garden flavor, but it's long gone. Well, today I'm going to show you a hack to fix that. So today we're going to start with basil, because I adore the taste of basil, and in the summer, you have so much that you don't know what to do with it all. Well, this is what you're going to do with all the extra that you can't eat right now so that you can be enjoying the fresh taste of basil all winter long. Let's go into the garden and find some. All right, so I think I've got a bunch right here. Let's check out this bed first. I planted this in July, and this basil has definitely taken off, and I haven't gotten to use nearly as much as I should. There's a way to harvest basil so that it keeps growing, and that is by cutting right above a leaf node. So I do still want basil to grow here because we may have, like, a whole month or so before our first frost. So I don't want it to stop, but I definitely want to catch the basil at its prime, which it's definitely at its prime. All right. All this basil was planted at the same time. You can see which ones I actually cut from. So this is probably the first harvest from this plant. The smell of basil is so intoxicating. I love it so much, and I often hit the middle of winter. I don't know if you do this, and I go buy those really terrible plants from the grocery store because I'm so sad that I don't have any more fresh basil in my house. This year, we're going to take care of that. So you can see all the basil that I'm able to get from just a few plants. And I have been harvesting from these groups. Not all the plants, but I know I've been harvesting from this garden quite often. I love herbs for this reason because they literally are cut and come again. You can just cut from them, and they just keep, keep coming back. It's amazing. So if you're looking for a plant that's going to give you a really good return on your investment, herbs are it. I mean, look at this. We've got more basil here. This has been growing a little bit longer and got A little bit woodier stem. You see that woody part? That's what starts to happen when the plant gets a little bit old. But, man, I mean, the plant doesn't seem to mind, right? It's just pumping out the leaves. The main goal of all plants is to make more plants. Like, literally, that's what they live for, is to just reproduce themselves. And so these plants are not going to die until they produce tons of seed. I'm going to show you in just a second what plants look like, what these basil plants look like when they're trying to produce more plants. But essentially, these things are just going to keep pumping out the leaves and the growth as long as they possibly can, because they don't want to die until they make a lot more plants. So here's a great example of a basil that is doing its job and going to seed. A lot of gardeners will tell you when this starts to happen, when your basil starts to flower, that you should cut those back and try to get more basil. But I've personally found that as soon as it starts to try to flower, it's going to flower no matter what. So. So I'm just going to let this plant do its thing because I've got plenty of basil on other plants. And the amazing thing is, y', all, look at all these little flower buds. These are each going to produce dozens of seeds. So I'll have enough basil seed for next year, enough to give to my friends, my family, my neighbors, and probably have for a couple years after that. Isn't the garden amazing? All right. I think we have more than enough basil to do our little project so that we can taste basil all winter long. Now let's head over and put it all together. All right? This is where the magic begins. So you're going to rinse and dry your basil. Let's pretend like I did that. And. Just kidding. No, not really. I didn't do rained, okay. I believe in rain washing my basil. So if you're into that kind of thing, rinse it and dry it off. If you're not, just move on. All right, so we're going to take off all the leaves. You don't want the. The top stems. That's not going to. That's not going to be what you like. So we're just going to pull off all the leaves and anything goes here, like tiny leaves, big leaves. You know, when you're making salads and things like that in the summer, you really want just the big leaves. But right now is the time Everything counts because we're saving this up for the winter. So we want to use as much as possible of the plant. So I'll take, like, a huge stem like this, and I'm just going to. Usually, what I'll try to do is start from the. Hold it from the top, and then rip it down. And this works for most herb harvests, is you hold it from the top and pull down. It works for, like, thyme, oregano. It's my easy way to harvest. And the bigger the stem, the easier it is to pull them all off. So you're going to do this ad nauseam, like, again and again and again for as much basil as you can save. And we're almost to the end. Like, it just is super easy. If I can do this, you can do this. All right, so now we've got a ton of basil to save. And I have to say, it smells so good right now. I just want to eat a caprese. So we're going to take this, pile it up, and now it's time to prepare this basil to be saved for the winter. We're just like that. Was it the grasshopper? What was the insect that did a good job of prepping for winter? Somebody played, and somebody prepped. We're the. We're the one that got ready. Okay. I don't remember anybody. So all you're going to do is chop, chop, chop. I kind of do, like, a little ribbon, if I can, where I, you know, bunch it together and get some ribbon cutting. I don't know if that's the right term, but essentially you're going for small cuts. This is going to release the oils and the flavor in the herbs and also makes it easier to save. Now, the method we're going to use to preserve these herbs today is what I use just for soft herbs. So what do I mean when I say soft herbs herbs? Soft herbs are where the stem is soft. Okay. Where it's a bendable, breakable, not woody stem. So in the summer, those are herbs. Basil is the primary soft herb in the fall and the spring. And really? Yeah, fall and spring is parsley, cilantro, and dill. Those are super soft herbs. And then the other one, which is kind of a standalone, is chives. Right. Because chives have that very, very soft stem, but they're a different kind of herb. So this is a great way to preserve all five of those herbs. I don't do it for every herb, so I don't do it for oregano, rosemary, thyme. I'll have to show you another preservation tool for those, but for soft herbs, this is the way to go. All right, you get the idea. This is the next step. We just cut it up, chop it up. Doesn't have to be exact, doesn't have to be pretty. The whole point of here is we're saving the flavor of summer. Saving the flavor. The flavor is what matters, not the way it looks. All right, next up, you want to have this really cool ice cube tray. Actually, it doesn't have to be this one. Any kind of ice cube tray that you want to use. This one is so neat because it pops them out and then you take it out and there's all your ice cubes. So I just saw this and I thought, oh, it's perfect for, for saving herbs. So now we're going to fill all of these cubes and it's going to be messy. I like to stick stuff mine because I want to be. I want to have as much basil in each cube as possible. You can do yours however you see fit. If you want more of the filler, then you could have less. If you don't have that much basil to store, then just use what you got. I like to have super, super intense basil flavor. So I'm going to stuff mine super full. And this is literally a project you could do in 10 minutes. I did one in early morning right after I got my kids off to school, and I was done in just a few minutes. So it's a 10 minute project. You could have your kids do it with you. You could make it like a Saturday morning thing. And once you do it, I mean, you're set for the winter season. So it's a really nice fall, middle of summer kind of project. And one of the things we talk about at gardenary is having a year round supply of herbs. And everybody, every time I say that, they go, no, you can't have a year round supply of herbs because they die. And I have winter. Everyone says that. I'm like, I don't mean it's growing year round. I mean when it grows, you save enough so you can have it in the winter, get it? That's a year round supply. So that's what we're talking about today. Not that it grows year round, but that you harvest enough to have a year round supply. So I'm not lying, I'm not exaggerating. I'm talking about this harvesting enough when it is so overwhelming in the garden and you just can't use it all fresh. Don't waste It. Save it for the winter. All right, we're now ready for the filler. So you can use any kind of oil that you're going to use. Don't judge. Don't judge. This olive oil, it's from Publix, but if you want to get fancier olive oil, go for it. I didn't care, but I have had fancy olive oil, and it is definitely worth the money. And I know all these, like, people saying, like, fake olive oil. My husband has a theory on the fake olive oils. Do you? Tell me in the comments. But anyway, this may be fake. I don't pompan. Don't want. Let me know if you want to sponsor this video. Anyway, if. If it's real, I'd love to know. But anyway, the whole point, you're just filling this up. So we don't want, like, a ton. Ton of olive oil here. The point is it's just enough to. To let this freeze so that we can defrost it and cook with it. Oops. I was really trying hard not to do that. So I'm just trying to fill each cube up. Like I said, the goal is not pretty. The goal is flavor, and that's what we're gonna have. So what you create here now, you're just gonna stick this in the freezer, and then as soon as they're frozen, you're gonna pop them out and store them. You can put them in a jar, you can put them in a Tupperware, you can put them in a freezer bag, and then you're just going to keep them in the freezer all winter or not all winter, hopefully just until you're ready to use them. And then anytime you want to cook with the flavor of basil, you are literally just going to pop one of these little guys out and melt it. You can either put it on the stovetop in a pan or whatever, and then, boom, it's gonna be like you're transported back to summer. It's gonna be like you're in the middle of July, even though you're in the middle of January. You're gonna have all these fresh flavors, all this smell of basil. And your dish is gonna be amazing. It's gonna taste homegrown even though it's in the middle of winter. That is the magic we're talking about. So let me show you what the finished product looks like. And we're back a few minutes later. This is. Is what it turns into so you can see how the oil has congealed. Is that what we say? I don't know what the word is, but you can see how in just a few hours, this becomes this. And yeah, it's looking pretty tasty to me. Pretty oily, pretty flavorful, pretty amazing. So we're just going to take this little guy and hopefully pop these guys out. Pop, pop. Yep, there we go. And then I just have this cute little nice little Tupperware guy. And we're just going to store these for the winter. And this is what we mean when we talk at Gardenary about a year round supply of herbs. Because this means that I get to have basil pasta, I get to have basil chicken, basil on, I don't know, soups, I get to have tomato basil soup, I get to have any kind of dish that's got basil in it, I get to have it. And I don't have to buy basil from the grocery store. I can just open up my freezer, pop this little guy open and throw this into the stove. No, don't put it in the stove. Put it on a pot first. Pot or pan, Pan or pot, something like that. And. And then you're good. And that, my friends, that's how you save the herbs. So we start here in the garden, full, all this deliciousness, right? And now we don't have to say goodbye to it. We get to enjoy it all year long. Saved in the freezer isn't going to take up hardly any space. And I think I've got how many? 1, 2, 3, 3, 6, 9, 12. 18 times. 18 times this winter I'm going to get to enjoy fresh basil even though my garden is completely dead. All right. If you want to learn how to enjoy the garden every single day of the year, that's what we're all about here at Gardenary. So we have got so many new resources to show you how in the upcoming year you can literally eat from the garden every single day. So we have a really cool surprise for you right below this video. Go check it out and then tell me what you think about saving your basil for the winter. I'll see you next time.