i have recently started cooking and i bought fresh herbs (basil,parsley and coriander) at my local supermarket.i sat them at my windowsill and they were totally flat the next day!
I went out and bought some more parsley for a recipe i was doing and next day that was flat as well.
Please tell me what im doing wrong and how long should they last anyway as i'd rather use fresh herbs in my cooking but i dont want to keep replacing them everyday.Do they only last a couple of days? I am a omplete novice at this so don't laugh please lol

Did you buy the "cut" herbs in bags or the ones in pots of soil?

Cut herbs - I tend to put them in a container with their stalks in some water in the bottom and keep in the fridge (in the Summer but in the Winter mine do fine on the side in the kitchen).

Pots of soil - keep them in a light but moderate place, ie, window sill and do not allow them to dry out.

Good luck and don't give up.

I keep the cut herbs in the same way as Mrs Woof Woof suggested and it keeps weeks in the fridge. Just make sure you cover the top loosely with a piece of cling film, though. The atmosphere in the fridge is quite dry, so unless you cover it, the water keeps on evaporating and it can make inside of your fridge too damp or can get our fridge air-control system overworked. Moist atmosphere inside the covered container helps keep the herb fresher longer as well.

And if you're likely to keep the herb in that way more than several days, change the water every few days and make sure none of the leaves is touching the water because the first deterioration starts there and will spread to other parts of the herb.

In case of curly parsley, because I use it very often I always buy a large large bunch of it and chop the leaves part only roughly after washing and drying thoroughly and pack it in a container and keep in a freezer. When you want to use it, you can just scrape the top as much as you need onto whatever dish. And you can keep the stem part in a fridge (wrapped in a cling film) for a week or two to use it in stock/stew/etc,etc.

Good luck!

i bought them in pots and i did keep checking for them drying out but they still died.my husband bought the dried stuff because i keep ruining them so will will try my best to look after them .Could it be the heating killing them as i like a warm house?

oh, and thanks for the reply.I have bought the fresh ones u get in packets like tarragon but i had no idea that you could prolong their life as they had a sell by date.i will definetly take your advice.thanks

I buy the little herb plants from ASDA and they always last at least a week - the parsley might be wilting due to too much sun, or at least too hot a position.

I have a basil plant that I bought a month ago, still going strong.

After a few days on the window ledge I water them using one of those small iron filling pots - that way it's easy to avoid over watering, which is a risk because there is so little soil in the pots, a little and often is the way to go. If you lift the pot, you can tell by the weight if they are getting dry.

If you want to revive a wilting plant, try adding 2 fluid ounces of fizzy water to the pot, they love that. But if you want them to last, make sure they don't get too dry or too hot.

I always have a small pot of basil on my window-sill in the kithen and it survives for weeks and weeks, well past its 'best end' date, without any problem, Just don't forget to water regularly, maybe every day if it's warm and every other day if it's cool, because basil needs moist soil.

As for a pot of parsley... I've never been very successful with them indoor. They do survive for a week or two, but after that, either it gets white flies or some leaves become mouldy. That's why I started freezing the chopped leaves like I explained above. They're great in outdoor though, as long as you get a proper plant from nursery.

If you buy tarragon in a pack, it maybe better to use it as quickly as possible, because its leaves are so soft and delicate, they don't last very long and you can't really freeze it because of the same reason. (Defrosted leave of tarragon is horrible with limpy texture and dark discoloration.) The best way I've found to keep it was to wrap loosely in damp (but most of moisture squeezed out) sheets of kitchen paper and put it in an air-tight container in a fridge. This method works well with other soft leaved herbs as well.

When ever i have bought herbs in pots i leave them with the packing around them and give them a really good water leave them over night then re plant the in a container on my patio (make sure they have plenty of water though when the weather gets hot) i have found that they last the whole summer that way and when they start to get to big and i can't use them i chop and freeze them for use in the winter months, as the plants arn't to dear i don't mind buying fresh every spring