Things You'll Need:
- Snips or clippers
- Paper towels
- Aluminum foil
- Blender
- Ice cube trays
- Boards or bricks
- Window screen
- Plastic bag(s)
Tip
Use frozen sorrel leaves in soups and other cooked foods because they taste better than when you use them in salads or other raw dishes.
Frozen sorrel tastes better to some people than dried sorrel.
Several types of sorrel exist, all of which you can grow in your garden as an annual. Choose from garden sorrel, French sorrel, spinach dock, spinach rhubarb or sheep sorrel. All of these plants belong to the Rumex genus of plants and are good fresh in salads or cooked in soups, stews and stir-fried vegetable dishes. If you like the tart taste of this leafy green plant, grow two or three plants for each family member. You can freeze or dry sorrel leaves to preserve them as an herb.
Freezing
Harvest whole sorrel leaves to ground level and then cut off the stalks.
Wash leaves in a basin full of water and then pat them dry with paper or cloth towels.
Wrap your washed and dried leaves in aluminum foil. Then store sorrel packets in your freezer for up to several months.
Liquefy sorrel leaves in a blender, alternatively. Then freeze them in ice cube trays. After the cubes harden, remove them from the trays and transfer them to plastic zipper bags. Store them for up to several months in your freezer.
Drying
Harvest whole sorrel leaves to ground level and then cut off the stalks.
Wash leaves in a basin full of water and then pat them dry with paper or cloth towels.
Set up a drying station in a warm, dark, dry, well-ventilated place such as your garage. Prop up an old window screen on boards or bricks and lay the sorrel leaves on it in a single layer.
Crush the leaves when they feel dry and crunchy. You can place them into a plastic Ziploc bag and crush them with your hands. Then store them in tightly sealed Mason jars in a cool, dark place and use them as an herbal addition to dishes such as soups and stews.
Writer Bio
Barbara Fahs lives on Hawaii island, where she has created Hi'iaka's Healing Herb Garden. Fahs wrote "Super Simple Guide to Creating Hawaiian Gardens" and has been a professional writer since 1984. She contributes to "Big Island Weekly," "Ke Ola" magazine and various websites. She earned her Bachelor of Arts at University of California, Santa Barbara and her Master of Arts from San Jose State University.
Related Articles
