Now is the time all over the country when herbs are in full bloom and gardening days are often spent pruning and picking with less time planting and watering. If you are an avid gardener, or even a forager or farmer’s market-goer, this is the perfect time to be harvesting herbs for a variety of reasons. It is the time for drying for teas or herbs in the winter, and it is definitely the time to be making infusions. Infusions are especially nice since you are not harvesting for tenderness, you can use parts of plants you would normally ignore: the flowering ends of basil or oregano, the woodier part of rosemary or sage, the parts you pinch off to make your plants bush out…everything is fair game in an infusion.

Herbs are best picked for preserving projects when they are flowering. This is the point where the plant is filled with the most oils, and basically screaming to be noticed. You can use as much or as little herb as you like, and let is stand for anywhere from a week to a month, using whatever vinegar you prefer. Below is a list of general guidelines for making a vinegar infusion, but once you have tried it a couple times you should experiment with whatever you can get your hands on, it is nearly impossible to screw this up! You are really just getting stuff and putting it in stuff. It is that simple.

• Vinegar infusions can be used for a variety of things, such as making your own salad dressing or dipping sauces, mayonnaise, or for adding extra flavor when sautéing food. My favorite use is for caramelizing onions. I strongly recommend using white or red wine vinegars as they have the mellowest flavor,
• When possible, pick herbs while they are flowering, feel free to use the flowering ends of herbs or the woodier areas you would normally be pruning. You can use anything you have ever cooked with. This season I did lavender, lemon verbena, nasturtium, basil, oregano, fennel and citrus leaves. But you can also use ginger, jasmine flowers, honeysuckle, sage, garlic, even berries or fruit.

• clean the herbs as well as possible without using water (if you can)
• some plants (usually flowers like jasmine, honeysuckle, or nasturtium) will have bugs. You can either not pick them, or decide not to be squeamish about it.  You can always strain the vinegar through a paper filter later!
• Generally speaking, you want to loosely fill the container with whatever herb you are using for your infusion, don’t crush or pack it in.

• Fill each container enough to cover the herbs so no part is peeking out.  It is okay if it floats to the top, it will sink back down within a couple days
• If you are reusing jars, check for nicks in the lids that might rust. If you see any, cover the jar in a couple layers of plastic wrap first
• Store the jars in a cool dark place. I mean it, dark place. Keeping it in a window because it is pretty is going to ruin the flavor, color, and general integrity of your infusion. If you don’t have a cupboard, keep them in a brown paper bag or under a thick towel.

• Turn the jars upside down a couple times each day for the first couple of days to make sure every part of the herb is covered.
• Start tasting your vinegar about a week in- never directly smell vinegar or it could burn you, it is extremely acidic! Let it sit until you are satisfied with the infusion for up to a month.
• When it is ready, poor the vinegar into a bottle and seal it with a cork or a drizzling insert. You can use any kind of bottle, old soda bottles, old oil, soy sauce bottles or salad dressing bottles, just make sure they are clean.

Photographs by Rosey Lakos at roseylakosphotography.com.