Being able to use herbs in your cooking year round is the goal of most cooks who also garden. In some climates, herbs will stay green throughout the year, but if you live where the snow blows and hail falls, you will need to take action to keep a supply of herbs on hand. As usual (since we live in America), we have choices in how we can do it.

The time-tested traditional way to preserve an herbal harvest is drying. Most herbs can be dried by pulling up the entire plant or cutting long stems off the plant, and hanging them up to dry naturally. You've probably seen pictures of bunches of herbs hanging upside down from a rack or hook in the ceiling or on a pot rack. Once the herbs are completely dry, they should be taken down, remove the leaves from the stems and put them in containers.

Another easy method is to put the whole stems you harvest into paper bags, fold over the tops and staple them or clip them to keep them closed and stick them on your pantry shelf, or if you do not have a pantry, shove them into a cupboard.  Then, when it comes time to be using them for winter meals, you just  have to "harvest" out of the bag.  It helps if you label the bags so you don't have have to open all of them before you find the herb you're needing.

You can use the slower winter months to strip all the herb leaves once they are dried and put them in your containers. (You can burn the stems in the fireplace.)

The traditional container is a small chest with drawers for seperating the herb varieties. Modern methods can include putting your dried herbs in glass bottles, tins, plastic bags, etc. I use glass jars so I can see what is inside easily when looking for a particular herb, which is a daily thing in my kitchen. I can tell what herb it is by the leaf's shape, but sometimes I have to label them. Marjoram and thyme leaves look too much alike, but they taste totally different so I don't want to make a mistake of identification with them.

Sometimes the label can be a decorative addition to your kitchen decor. They look nice when they are all alike, but different labels mixed up in your herb collection can look very 'homey' in a kitchen. You can use old jelly jars for storing your herbs, or make or buy a chest with tiny drawers in it for a totally traditional look. The wooden drawers will take on the odor of the herbs inside, so you should store the same herb in the same drawer every year. If you identify your herbs by their smell, putting a different herb in a drawer that smell like mint will make it impossible to tell what you have in it. You will also come to know which drawer to pull for the particular herb it holds, and that makes life a little simpler for the cook. I like the idea of drawers because you can pull it out and pinch out the amount you want easily. With the jars, you have to dump it into your hand and that takes two hands to do, whereas the drawers can be handled with one hand. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but if you have your hands in a dough or bowl of meat mixture, using one hand becomes a real time saver (and frustration buster).

The woolley herbs like sage should not be washed first, just make sure they are bug and dirt free and you can hang them to dry as they will shrink up in the drying process.

There are some herbs that are not hung to dry. Instead you wash them and lay them on paper towels or racks to dry. Basil and parsley and chives are done this way so they don't turn brown and spoil before they can dry.

Other ways to preserve your herbs for use in the kitchen is to freeze them. Simply cut leaves from stems, let air out for 1/2 hour and then bag them and freeze. Moisture in the herb can turn to ice crystals in the bag, making it hard to identify the herb, so labelling the bag is real helpful when freezing.

Chives seem to not freeze & thaw very well, so I would not suggest this method for them. But, there is life after freezing. Chives are very easy to keep alive by simply putting them in a pot on the window sill. When guests get fresh chives served to them they feel really fortunate to be eating at my house, so fresh chives are worth the very little effort it takes to put them into a little pot on the window or under your tabletop grow light. Combined with a few other herb varieties under a tabletop light, they make a very inviting ambience in your kitchen. Keep a little snipper handy and just snip away when you cook. The smells are delightful and rewarding. You can keep your herbs anywhere, but the kitchen is the handiest place for a cook to have them. If you are planting a pot with herb seeds, plant two pots, and give one as a gift once they sprout.

If you have a greenhouse, you can designate a small section of it for the growing of herbs year round. Most culinary herbs are perennial plants, and will just get better with time (and a dousing of worm or compost tea). Some will shut down for a few weeks and then come back again. Trim off the tops of hybernating herbs like lavender and thyme, as new stems will emerge from the base of the plant. You can use the dried out stems that are not useable in the kitchen for the fireplace to add a little fragrance to the fire or help it get started.

You can dig up herbs you have outdoors and pot them to bring indoors or into the greenhouse to extend the season for them. So many dishes that I like to cook in the cold weather call for parsley. It makes sense to have it handy at all times, and it just keeps on producing the more you use it. Fresh parsley likes to live in a slightly cool temperature, so a transitional room like an enclosed porch that won't freeze is a good place for it, or a cool greenhouse corner. Just make sure all your herbs get at least 5 hours of sunlight per day.

Additional hints for herbs:

Basil: Keep any flower buds snipped off so it doesn't bolt and stop growing. Basil can also be pureed in a blender or food processor with a little water, then pour it into
an ice cube tray til frozen, then pop them out and put in a bag. This
method is good for using in making a pesto, soups, stews, casseroles,
etc.

Chives: Have a very long root, for long term keeping, use a deep pot to grow in. Snip off the largest chives as they mature.

Parsley: Has a taproot, so start it from seed in a pot before the weather gets too cool.

Oregano: Likes good drainage, sandy soil and regular hair cuts.

Rosemary: Likes humidity and moderate watering. If you overwater it, the needles turn brown. A sandy loam and an occasional misting would be perfect.

Thyme: When it gets a good set of leaves on the stems, harvest them all, cut the stems low to the base and let it come back. If your plant gets too woody, start over and throw the old plant into the fire.