Cilantro

... you either love it, or hate it.

I happen to be in the 'love it' camp.  Last summer, I had a ton of it in the garden.  It over-winters here, which means fresh cilantro for most of the year.  Unfortunately, it doesn't like the heat, so come the beginning of June, all of my plants had bolted... just in time for tomato (and salsa-making) season.  BOO-HISS.

This year, I am determined to have cilantro for salsa!  Last fall, I planted a slow-bolt variety that is more heat resistant.  A few weeks ago, I planted sunflowers around the patch, in hopes of providing some shade to convince them not to bolt as fast.

Now that the warmer weather has arrived, the cilantro has started to take off.  I knew I had to do something soon, because in a few weeks from now I'll be battling the Black Swallowtail caterpillars (cilantro is a member of the carrot family, so the butterflies lay their eggs on the leaves, and the caterpillars can completely decimate the plants).  Unfortunately, I didn't know WHAT to do... common wisdom says you can't really preserve cilantro because it doesn't dry OR freeze well.

Then, I saw THIS TIMELY POST on Pinterest and decided I had absolutely nothing to lose.  So this morning, I cut back all the plants and tried to remove as much of the stems as possible.

I added a couple of gluggs of olive oil and stirred until the leaves were coated (see how shiny they are!)

Then, I put them all into a freezer bag and crossed my fingers.  Salsa or bust!