Sage: Ways to Use and Preserve a Bumper Crop

Sage (Salvia officinalis) is a common culinary herb of the mint family (Lamiaceae family). It is responsible for many of the wonderful herby smells emanating from kitchens on Sundays, Thanksgiving, and other winter feasts.

It’s a perennial, evergreen plant that can provide you with fresh herbs year-round, depending on your climate. However, summer leaves are much tastier, and it doesn’t hurt to leave your plants alone over the winter to help them survive. There is no growing to be don’t during that time, so it’s best to do your harvesting during the summer.

Sage can grow rampant during the summer months and harvesting from it regularly helps to keep your bush strong and healthy. An end-of-the-season prune can also leave you with a huge pile of leaves that can either go to the compost bin or provide you with more kitchen sage than you know what to do with.

Sure, soups, stuffing, and stews are bettered by sage, but there are many more things to be done with a bumper sage harvest than just that.

Dried Sage

Source: ehowgarden/YouTube

You will have missed an opportunity if you don’t dry at least some of your sage leaves for your herb and spice cupboard. Drying herbs is pretty simple. Just make sure that your leaves are clean and dry of any external moisture. You can either string a few sprigs of sage together and hang them in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight or put them into a brown paper bag with some ventilation holes.

Leave your sage to dry for 2-3 weeks. The time it takes to dry out completely will depend on your climate. If you notice any molding or spoilage, throw it all away and start again. You will know the leaves are ready when they feel crisp to the touch.

Infused Maple Syrup

Sage-infused maple syrup combines the ultimate sweet and savory flavors together. You can use your sage-flavored syrup just as you would any other bottle of maple syrup. It can add some depth of flavor to pancakes and can add a note of herbiness to baked goods.

Get a clean, dry jar and fill it halfway with bruised sage leaves. Chopping the leaves up would make the infusion faster, but it will be much harder to strain them out later. Next, pour maple syrup all over the leaves until the jar is full. The length of time you leave the maple syrup to infuse is a matter of preference. The longer you leave it, the stronger the flavor will be. However, at least a week will give you a significant taste of sage.

Once the syrup is to your liking, strain the leaves out and store your syrup as usual. Leaving the leaves in the jar is also an option, but realize that the infusion process with continue.

Freezing

Source: Kelly Senyei/YouTube

Sturdy sage is a great candidate for freezing. You can actually just lay individual leaves on a tray and freeze them as they are. However, they will then be prone to breakage and discoloration. This will not affect the flavor at all, but it just doesn’t look quite right.

The best way, therefore, is to freeze chopped sage in ice cube trays. Put a good handful of fresh sage leaves in a food processor with a good glug of olive oil. The amount of oil you use is entirely up to you, but you essentially want to make something that resembles pesto.

Whizz everything together and transfer the mixture into ice cube trays. Pop them in the freezer, and once solid, transfer them to a ziplock bag or other container. Now, when you want a bit of sage flavor, you can just toss a cube or two into whatever dish you are creating. You don’t need to defrost the cube first.

Herbal Salt

Herbal salts are a great way to preserve fresh herbs. They are really easy to make and can store for up to a year. The salt itself acts as a preservative and stops the fresh herbs from spoiling.

You can use any salt you like, but a good quality sea salt or kosher salt would be a good option. The ratio of salt to fresh herbs is also up to you. A straight 50:50 salt/herb combo would work perfectly, but for a more intense salt, you can simply add more herbs.

Whizz your salt and herbs together in a food processor and then store the mixture in a clean, dry glass jar. You may cook with this salt but using it as a finishing salt on sandwiches, popcorn and salads mean that you really experience the flavor.

Use it in Recipes

It is all very well preserving sage for a later date, but sometimes you just want to use it there and then. Check out this recipe for sage pesto or this Thanksgiving crowd-pleaser of stuffing. You can turn sage leaves into a delicious snack with this recipe for sage tempura.

Related Content:

• The Essential Guide to Herbs
• Preserving Our Food Without Additives: 5 Natural Ingredients That Work Better
• Growing Your Own Perennial Culinary Herb Garden at Home
• 5 Medicinal Herbs to Grow in Pots

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