Properly cared for and placed in a good location, rosemary can grow into a sizable bush of about two meters in height. However, optimal care also includes the correct harvest of the rosemary needles. We will show you what is important.

Harvest rosemary late in the morning or midday

The right time to harvest depends on how you want to use the rosemary afterwards. Rosemary that is to be dried or frozen is best cut off in the late morning or around midday. In addition, it should be a dry, sunny day so that there is no excess moisture on the leaves. By this time, any morning dew has already dried off. Moisture quickly leads to mold growth, especially when the rosemary is drying. Furthermore, rosemary contains the highest concentration of aromatic essential oils at this relatively late time of the day. Rosemary for immediate use, on the other hand, can be harvested at any time of the day.

Harvesting is also used for care

Rosemary is a perennial shrub whose shoots tend to become woody and thus bare. For this reason, the young, still green branches must be pruned regularly. After all, fresh shoots do not sprout from the old wood. As a result, the harvest is also used for pruning, which is why you should cut off not just individual twigs or needles, but entire branches as close as possible to the woody part of the plant. The cut is made with a sharp, clean knife or scissors.

Discard rosemary needles

The rosemary needles can either be clipped from the stem with nail scissors or, with significantly less effort, after freezing the whole sprig first. The frozen needles can be stripped off easily, but you should hurry - the plant parts will thaw again very quickly. Freezing will not affect the taste of the rosemary.

Processing of the freshly harvested rosemary

Process rosemary as soon as possible after harvest to preserve as many of the volatile essential oils as possible. If possible, use the whole needles, because chopping them up will lose a lot of the flavor. The same applies to dried or otherwise preserved rosemary, which should only be ground, cut or rubbed shortly before it is actually used. Freshly harvested rosemary can either be used directly, but also through

  • drying
  • Freeze
  • or pickling

be made durable. Preserved rosemary should be stored in a dark place as exposure to the sun will damage the delicate essential oils. Only use bright green, healthy and undamaged needles. Withered and dried-up leaves, on the other hand, are better disposed of.

tips and tricks

In addition to regular pruning during the harvest - make sure to prune the rosemary bush as evenly as possible and remove shoots that are too dense - a topiary is carried out in spring, during which the plant can be severely pruned back. This measure serves both to maintain health and to rejuvenate. In the fall, however, a Mediterranean herb like rosemary is not pruned.

IJA

Category:

Vegetable garden