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Post by feather on Mar 11, 2020 0:17:50 GMT
My bay leaves are not in direct sunlight but reflective sunlight. They get faded and I use them. I just got a new batch (two actually), so I covered the jar with black electrical tape to see if I could stop them from getting faded. I'll get back to you next year.
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Mar 11, 2020 15:23:25 GMT
We foolishly went on Bulkfoods.com and bought a pound of Bay Leaves. Any guess how many bay leaves it takes to make a pound? A whole, whole bunch. We store them in plastic containers, sealed with moisture absorbers. The pantry where they are is dark 99.9% of the time, and they look the same as the day we stored them.
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Post by feather on Mar 11, 2020 15:31:15 GMT
We foolishly went on Bulkfoods.com and bought a pound of Bay Leaves. Any guess how many bay leaves it takes to make a pound? A whole, whole bunch. We store them in plastic containers, sealed with moisture absorbers. The pantry where they are is dark 99.9% of the time, and they look the same as the day we stored them. A whole, whole bunch! Good to know!
They are supposed to be good to make sure bugs/pantry moths stay away, so to put them on the shelves in a pantry is supposed to help.
I noticed that my large supply of parsley that was green was starting to fade, so I'm going to have to give it the same treatment. + oxygen absorbers. Thanks Ozarks Tom.
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Post by mogal on Mar 11, 2020 15:58:04 GMT
Yep, a whole bunch!
I keep our bay leaves and similar herbs (particularly homegrown and dried parsley) in vacuum sealed jars in a windowless basement until I take a small quantity to the kitchen to use. Even then, I store them in a closed cabinet. I don't use O2 absorbers in plastic containers or even glass jars with plastic lids because plastic allows transfer of gases, wasting the O2 absorber.
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Post by feather on Mar 11, 2020 16:55:36 GMT
mogal, ideally, if I had enough glass herb/spice jars, I'd use them. I do save them and the plastic stuff too. Plastic will allow moisture to go through it, slowly, like I saw with honey. My thought is the O2 absorbers work until they are completely activated, then their help is diminished because there is only so much oxygen they can absorb. It seems like some things are more sensitive to light or moisture or oxygen, like bay leaves and parsley. I recall chives that I dehydrated were also sensitive. These green type of things are sensitive to too high of a dehydrator temperature as well. They need to be dried at a low temperature, like 100 deg F.
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Post by mogal on Mar 11, 2020 21:30:48 GMT
Ozarks Tom and Feather, I didn't mean that post to sound brusque.
I've never had any luck getting chives or cilantro dry and retain any flavor so I don't know about storing them. My dehydrator comes on at close to 85o so I use that for herbs. It didn't make any difference on flavor.
I use plain old canning jars of various sizes or commercial jars if a canning lid will fit them to store herbs.
"I covered the jar with black electrical tape" You are going to have so much fun getting that electrical tape off your jar! Grin.
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Post by feather on Mar 14, 2020 15:12:24 GMT
mogal, I have been known to throw things away that are irretrievable. I believe my electrical taped jar, will be irretrievable. I'm a magician at cleaning the jars, but black tape, never. I believe that chives and cilantro are almost impossible to preserve by any method. They don't retain their original flavor by drying or freezing. I used cilantro in following a recipe for caramelized pineapple salsa with a lot of fresh cilantro, and it might as well have been grass for the flavor of it.
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