If you’ve got an abundant herb garden, but no time to do anything with its bounty, here’s an easy gift to throw together and store until Christmas season; the biggest expense will be the pretty packaging, but you don’t need that just yet.
Take a box of plain kosher salt and a large, clean jar or plastic container with a tight- fitting lid. Throw in just about any savory, Mediterranean- type herb. Best is rosemary, packed with essential oil, but oregano, thyme, sage and lavender also work well; parsley and other thin, fragile-leaved herbs, not so much.
Wash and dry the herbs well; chop them roughly to release the essential oils. Then simply layer them in the container with the kosher salt.
There’s no need to measure; you can’t get it wrong. But if you must have quantities, a half-cup to a cup of herbs will scent and flavor a single blue box of salt.
If your garden is small, just continue to add more herbs to the salt as it grows.
Check the herbed salt every other month or so until the holidays. If you managed to make it too strong, mix it with some unflavored kosher salt to take the flavors. Around December, portion the herbed salt into glass jars for gifts, or mix with olive or jojoba oil to make an herbed salt body scrub.
