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Having planted the herbs, nurtured them and enjoyed watching them grow and flourish, that is not the end of the process. You planted your culinary herbs which are all so extremely useful in so many ways. Now it is time to prepare the harvest from herb garden and that requires some work.
Before you can use any herb you need to harvest it. Because the wind and heat of the sun can destroy the essential oils in your herbs; for best results you need to be up early on a fine calm and warm morning to harvest your herb garden. Fewer oils are produced by a herb on wet days so there is little point in gathering your herbs in the rain. Harvesting the herbs just after the dew has dried from the leaves and before any flowers open will give the best results and provide produce at its most potent or flavorful.
Unlike with farm crops, harvesting from the herb garden does not mean removing the entire plant. All you need to do is just take a certain amount of growth for use. Remember that if you take too much for immediate use, at the time that you pick them, some can be preserved for later; but naturally freshest is best. Because the plant will need a good amount of foliage in order to re-grow well, do be careful not to take more than one third of the plant's foliage in any one harvesting session. However do not go to the other extreme and allow your plants to race away and become woody and overgrown. Prune them back regularly to maintain shape and freshness. The prunings can be preserved or even used to make cuttings. I shall cover increasing your stock using cuttings in a later article.
Of course, for culinary purposes you will mostly want to use herbs fresh right out of the garden, just plucking what is needed at that time. In doing so you would only take the cleanest freshest bits. However if it is necessary do take care about cleaning them before they are placed fresh in recipes. To clean the herbs place them in a bowl filled with cool water in which you dissolved two tablespoons of salt. If there is a large quantity of herbs you can use the sink. This salt in the water will drive off any insects without damaging the herbs. Carefully remove them from the water and taking care not to damage them, pat dry using soft muslin cloth or tissue or dry them in a salad spinner.
Different types of herbs have many different uses (another topic for a coming article). Each different type of herb may have a special list of instructions on how to use, harvest, and chop. Make sure to research the specific type of herb you are using in order to use it correctly.