Prepara Herb Saver

Joey and I spent this past Easter with our friend Gregory. He made us the most wonderful brunch and one of my favorite items was the melon balls with mint chiffonade. The mint really added something to melon. For such a simple dish, it was delicious.

The next weekend we decided to have the same thing so we bought some melon and some mint. Now a little mint goes a long way, so what do you do with the rest? Usually I wrap it up and it goes into the fridge never to be seen again. What a waste. This time however, I had my Prepara Herb Saver that Joey had gotten me for Christmas. I hadn't really tried it yet so now was the time.

We first saw it on Oprah's Favorite Things. She said it prolonged the life of your fresh herbs for up to three weeks. I found it hard to imagine that Oprah cooked, let alone saved her leftover herbs, but I really did want one. Once I got it, I just kept forgetting to use it. Finally, I could see if Oprah was telling the truth. I placed my herbs in the herb saver and placed them in the refrigerator where they gradually found their way to the back corner. About a month later I was slicing some strawberries and thought it would be nice to have some balsamic vinegar and mint on them and remembered the mint I had bought after Easter. Surely, it still couldn't be good, but it was worth a shot. Besides, I needed to get it out of the fridge anyway. Well, to my surprise it was still fresh. Not fresh like, "Oh, this isn't so bad" but really fresh. It was like I had just put it in there yesterday. The herb saver proved it's worth and now I use it all the time. So Oprah was right, as if I ever doubted her.

During the holidays these little babies were pretty hard to find and rather pricey. Now that some time has passed you can get one on Amazon for about $20. If you use fresh herbs a lot and find them going to waste it will pay for itself pretty quickly.