Sage (Salvia officinalis) is a prized culinary herb of the mint (Lamiaceae) tribe. It's well known for the savory herby scents that drift from kitchens on Sundays, Thanksgiving, and other holidays of the special winter season.
It’s a plant that stays green all year and can give you fresh herbs all the time, based on your weather. But summer leaves taste better, and it’s good to let your plants rest in winter to help them live. You don’t need to grow anything during that time, so it’s best to pick your herbs in the summer.
Sage can leaf out heavily during the summer, and harvesting it frequently will keep your plant healthy and vigorous. Cutting it way back by the end of the season will yield a large leaf pile that can be composted or used to enjoy extra kitchen sage.
Indeed, soups, stuffing, and stews benefit from sage, but we can conceive of half-dozen or more other purposes of a large sage crop than that.
Dried sage
You will be losing out if you don't dry some of your sage leaves to store in your herb and spice pantry. Drying out herbs is simple. Ensure that your leaves are dry and clean. Either bundle some of your sprigs of sage together and hang them up in a dry, cooler area out of direct sunlight, or place them into a brown paper lunch bag with holes in it to allow air.
Let the sage dry for 2-3 weeks. The length of time that this will take will be determined by your climate. If any mold or spoilage occurs, then you will have to get rid of all of it and redo the process. The leaves will be ready to dry and store, and with handling, they will be brittle and dry.
Infused Maple Syrup
Sage-flavored maple syrup combines the ideal savory and sweet flavors in one. Your sage-flavored syrup can be used exactly like any other bottle of maple syrup. It can add some richness of flavors to pancakes and can add a sense of herbiness to baked items.
Use a dry, clean jar and fill it with bruised sage leaves. If you chop the leaves, the infusion will be sooner, but you will not be able to strain off the leaves later. Now add maple syrup to the leaves until the jar is full. The length of time that you want to let the maple syrup infuse will be determined by your taste. The longer that you want to let it infuse, the stronger the flavor will be. However, letting it infuse for at least one week will give you a good sage flavor.
When the syrup tastes to your liking, take off the leaves and bottle your syrup as you would. Or keep the leaves in the jar, but note that the flavor will keep changing.
Freezing
Sturdy sage is a good choice for freezing. You can simply place individual leaves on a tray and freeze them as they are. However, they may break and change color. This will not change the flavor, but it might not look very nice.
The best way to store chopped sage is to keep frozen sage in ice cube trays. To get started, get a whole lot of fresh sage leaves and put them into a food processor with olive oil. Decide how much oil you want to put into the processor, but you want to make a pesto-style mixture.
Combine all of the ingredients and pour into ice cube trays. Place them into the freezer, then transfer to a ziplock or container when they set. Now you can add a cube or two of sage flavor to anything you want to. There is no need to thaw the cube before using.
Herbal Salt
Herbal salts preserve fresh herbs for a very long time. They can be prepared very easily and can be retained fresh for up to one year. The preservative property of the salt prevents the fresh herbs from getting spoiled. You can use any salt that you wish to, but kosher or sea salt is a good choice. The amount of salt to fresh herbs is your choice. A standard 50:50 mix of salt to herb will do the trick, but if you want a kick of salt, then you can use more herb. Blend your salt and herbs together in a food processor and pour the mixture into a dry, sterile glass jar. It can be cooked with, but sprinkling this salt on sandwiches, popcorn, and salads gives you the best of the flavors.
Use It In Recipes
Good sage will keep until you desire to utilize it, but sometimes you desire to utilize sage now. Try this sage pesto recipe or this traditional Thanksgiving stuffing. Try this sage tempura recipe and make a tasty morsel of sage leaves.
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