As an avid cook, I rely heavily on my favourite ingredients – lots of fresh vegetables, French sea salt and fresh herbs to liven up a dish.

However, after a couple of days in the fridge, my cilantro, dill, mint and flat leaf parsley look like they have just come out of the washing machine – limp and starting to turn, I have to rapidly use up any of the “good bits” before throwing the rest out.

I have tried keeping them in a glass of fresh water on my window sill and I have bought that crazy green Astroturf that you keep in the vegetable bin in the fridge to help preserve your food’s freshness, but every week, it’s the same thing: First 2 days I have lovely fresh herbs and by day three, I am putting my hand in a gloppy mess of leaves, trying to weed out the last good ones to add to my omlette, paella or squash soup.

That’s why I am excited about Gourmet Garden Herbs and Spices. Tubes of fresh herbs and spices can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 months (and 6 in the freezer) and you don’t have to wash, chop or waste any food at all.

There are 10 available and what’s nice is, you can have a whole bunch on hand, allowing for more fresh flavours in your foods - ginger, Italian seasoning, oregano, lemongrass, parsley, basil, chili pepper, cilantro, garlic and dill.

I have been using the chili pepper a lot, which is great, because I rarely use dried pepper flakes, but with these tubes, I am keeping lemongrass on hand (which I only buy occasionally) and I am putting dill in everything because it keeps so much better in the tube than in the vegetable drawer.

It’s kind of changed how I cook.

I should tell you that in order to preserve the herbs for this amount of time in the fridge, there are other ingredients included, so it is not just the fresh herb or spice. There is salt, oil and modified milk ingredients, for example, so if you shouldn’t or can’t have certain things, be sure to read the label first.

Every cook is particular about certain things. Someone will only use dried oregano in their grandmother’s homemade spaghetti sauce and someone else will insist on fresh parsley to top off their frittata, but mostly, we cook quickly.

It is a lovely idea to have a garden of fresh herbs in which to snip before making a casserole, but rarely is that how life is in 2007.

I am happy to squirt on some garlic and Italian seasoning and mix it into my seafood medley.

I don’t have time to do everything from scratch. And so, I am squirting my herbs now and have reduced my herb wastage by 100%.

It’s a fast-paced world and thanks to Gourmet Garden, I can have dinner on the table even quicker.

Ahh. Doesn't that sound good?