Holy Cilantro!

I can't tell if it self-seeded from last year, or if this is the result of a handful of 2-year old seeds I tossed a few weeks back. In any event, this is a whopping big bunch of cilantro I pulled from the raised beds today. This is really only about half of it - there're more yet to come. It's particularly impressive, given that we have had almost no luck, ever, in getting cilantro to survive long enough to be worth harvesting. It would grow, bolt while still really small, then shrivel and die before ever reaching a harvestable amount. Bummer, too, because we actually use a lot of it - one store-bought bunch ever week or two.

The stems, some of which are as thick as a pencil, are for the most part to tough to be useful at this point. The leaves and smaller stalks are fine for cooking. I filled our salad spinner completely, twice, by plucking this bundle. After washing and spinning, it amounted to one gallon ziplock bag. For most of what we use cilantro for, freezing this batch and using it later (limp and definitely no longer fresh) will be fine.