A bunch of bay leaves I keep sealed and in the dark

The soup is already breathing — and the bunch of bay leaves sits in an open bag on the shelf by the light. Easy to leave it “easier to grab”: by the month the leaves fade, the cupboard smell stronger than the woods, and the hand tips a handful for nothing. I keep the bunch in a shut jar or a tight bag in the dark of the cupboard — so one leaf still smells.

A bunch of bay leaves I keep sealed and in the dark. The leaf into the pot and out again is another note; dried herbs when fresh is gone its own; a bunch of greens another story. Here it’s the bay store on the shelf: sealed, dark — not a faded bag by the window.

Into the pot — one leaf, not a handful “for show”. Before serving I take it out: the leaf stays tough; you don’t chew it like parsley. If the smell is already flat — a new bunch, not heroics with a dusty old one. I’m not choosing new bay with a review in this note — it’s about the bunch that already stands in the cupboard.

I don’t need bay that quietly fades in the light. I need a sealed bunch from which the pot smells of woods again. At yours does bay live sealed in the dark — or already in an open bag by the window?