Availability, Nutrition, and Recipe Suggestions
In Season: Fresh Cilantro is available June through the late fall
The esteemed Harold McGee addresses why cilantro tastes like soap to some [NY Times 2010]
Storage: Short term storage of cilantro will be best if you are able to reduce its transpiration, aka moisture loss from the leaves. The quickest and simplest method is to stash the cilantro in a bag in the fridge; you can take this one step further using a water jar… aka the “cut flower & herb fridge” method. Note this method also works well for dill.
Preservation: Cilantro like many herbs can be preserved by freezing.
Production Notes: We aim to produce a consistent supply of cilantro from early June through the fall. Cilantro doesn’t like the summertime heat and is prone to bolting, so we seed multiple successions through the season to ensure a sustained harvest. We will occasionally have gaps in cilantro harvest due to the weather and each season’s production. Cilantro can handle gentle frosts but after heavy freezes its flavor diminishes; therefore we typically wrap up cilantro harvesting in October or November each year.
Varieties: We’ve been quite pleased with Calypso Cilantro, from Johnny’s Selected Seeds, over the past few seasons, as it offers good resilience to bolting.
Nutrition: Cilantro is teaming with Vitamin K! Cilantro is also a good source of Vitamin A and C.
Deep Nutrition: According to Dr. David Williams, cilantro is a great option for detoxing heavy metals from your body; he suggests consuming cilantro with clay, while Christina Sarich suggests combing chlorella with cilantro.
Deep Science: Coriander Essential Oil and Chemistry [Mandal, 2015] and here’s an academic approach examining the prevalence of dislike of cilantro among different ethnocultural groups.
Preparation: Depending on the harvest rhythms and recent rainfall, our cilantro may or may not be washed. We suggest washing and drying Cilantro before using.
Basic Cilantro Pesto or Joshua Bousel’s Inspired Cilantro Pesto with Cotija and Pumpkin Seeds [Serious Eats]
- We might suggest starting with delicious local chicken from Copicut Farms in Dartmouth for a Cilantro Chicken Recipe [Genius Kitchen
Yum.