Delicate leafy herbs can be unforgiving and wilt quickly in the refrigerator, but this herb keeper has kept my greens perky and vibrant for a week, if not longer.
During the peak of the pandemic, when grocery shopping was challenging and inventory was low, my obsession with keeping greens from rapidly wilting reached an all-time high, and I turned to social media for solutions.
I tried several hacks, including wrapping herbs in a damp paper towel before stashing them in a plastic bag and chopping them up and freezing them in ice cube trays submerged in water or oil for later use. After much trial and error, I concluded the Mason jar and bag method worked best. It was life-changing—at least at first.
The method is simple: You snip the stems of your herbs before placing them in a Mason jar filled with a few inches of water. (Clipping the ends helps the plant absorb water more effectively.) Then you place a plastic bag over the leafy greens to reduce oxidation, promote humidity, and shield the delicate plant from the harsh refrigerator fans.
The Mason jar method is effective for keeping herbs fresher for longer, but it has a massive Achilles’ heel. Keeping a top-heavy, open glass container filled with water and leafy greens can—and does—lead to spills and messes, which I can tell you from experience.
The OXO Good Grips GreenSaver Herb Keeper features a well-designed two-compartment system that is similar to the Mason jar setup but reduces the calamities associated with it. It has a woven, green plastic basket that opens like a clamshell and fits into a clear plastic container with a lid.
How it works: You trim the ends of your herbs and place them stem-side down in the green basket, which keeps them neatly bunched together and upright when the basket is clamped shut. Then you slide the herb-filled basket inside the larger clear container, which holds a few inches of water to keep the stems hydrated. The lid helps prevent spills and protects the herbs from being damaged by the cold fridge temperatures.
Unlike the Mason jar I once used, this container holds herbs upright, which prevents the lower leaves from slouching over and dipping into the water, causing them to spoil. Plus, it’s slender and compact enough to fit in the tight corners of my cramped fridge or conveniently on the door shelves without taking up too much room.
There’s a lot to love about the practical design of the herb keeper, but my favorite part is that it keeps my herbs alive and well for a week, if not longer. That’s no exaggeration: a stash of parsley I’ve had for over 10 days is still thriving. A lousy produce bag simply could never. (To help herbs last as long as possible, I prefer to wash them only once I’m ready to use them—not before storing them.)
I swap out the water every few days to prevent stinkiness and bacterial growth. And since the basket is easy to retrieve, replacing the water only takes a minute. It’s also easy to open and shut, which is convenient when collecting a small portion of herbs to use. I suggest taking what you need (stems included) and not snipping leaves from the top using scissors, to keep the water as fresh as possible and reduce the risk of spoilage or contamination.
Although my herb keeper is much more effective than any other method I’ve tried, it’s not perfect. Its loose-fitting lid promotes air circulation and keeps high humidity levels at bay, but the risk of spillage is not zero (even though it is a lot sturdier and less likely to tumble than the Mason jars I once used).
I own the 1.8-quart-size herb keeper, which is roughly 7 inches tall. It can comfortably hold a single bunch of cilantro at a time. However, it’s a little short for taller herbs, such as a bountiful bunch of Italian parsley, and I sometimes need to bend the leaves ever so slightly to secure the lid. Although I would never give up my smaller herb keeper, I’ve been contemplating adding the 2.8-quart version to my collection for when I have an excess of herbs, especially taller ones (it’s about 2 inches taller and a few inches wider).
Despite its limited capacity, this herb keeper has kept leafy herbs with thick stems, such as rosemary, parsley, and cilantro, alive for weeks, and it helped significantly reduce my food waste. Some varieties, such as Italian parsley, rosemary, and mint, can last upwards of two weeks, while more delicate types, like cilantro and dill, stay freshest within the first week and a half.
To test my herb keeper, I used it to store cilantro and compared it against two other methods—a bag and a Mason jar—over the course of 15 days. By the end of my experiment, the herb keeper proved most effective, with the cilantro showing the least signs of spoilage. By comparison, the cilantro stored in a produce bag had started to turn stinky, soggy, and discolored at the end of four days (by day 15, it was mostly inedible).
Although the Mason jar method wasn’t as ineffective as the cilantro in a produce bag, it wasn’t great, either. And despite refreshing the water every four days, the lower leaves and stems started to wilt and tinge the liquid in the Mason jar light brown.
By day 15, about a quarter of the cilantro in the Mason jar had started to rot. Meanwhile, the cilantro in the herb keeper was still going strong, with the exception of one or two wilted stems.
I love that my OXO herb keeper ensures finicky herbs are on my schedule (and not the other way around), so I can always keep a stash of fresh, flavorful greens on hand to aromatize tuna salad or garnish a bowl of spaghetti.
This article was edited by Alexander Aciman and Megan Beauchamp.
