I've been lucky enough to live alongside bay trees for decades now but on god I've never met a plant that stores worse than bay. Completely different animal. You put it in a cabinet for one week and it looses half its flavor. One month and it dries up into a crunchy little nothing. Anyone who tries to sell you a bay leaf in a little plastic jar that has been in Walmart for half a year is complicit in pushing those recipe blog ingredient lists.
If you don't have fresh bay around (and who WOULD) just use a little greek oregano or thyme. But ideally, if you live in zone 8 to 10, plant a bay laurel because they are just wonderful trees and are a truly useful addition to any garden. Also they make SO MANY BAY LEAVES. You'll never want for it again.
being able to go outside and grab a flavor is one of the best parts of my life
Okay maybe this is a US thing or a skill issue but dried, cheap, grocery-store bay leaves do absolutely taste and smell like something and their presence in a broth is very detectable. Maybe ones that have been in your cupboard, open but unused, for several years lose their potency but people are being insane hipsters about this posting like "well unless you get artisanal hand-picked fresh bay leaves from the farmer's market where I barter my kombucha mother mock-dashi flakes"
but at a supermarket (which... is often the only grocery store in the area, because many of the bodegas at least here just, source from them), you have to check the best by dates and get the furthest out you can find.
aim for the ones further to the back of the store shelf, thus making the problem of stale ones at the front of the shelf even more of a problem.
store in freezer.
(or: go to/online a spice shop, and still put them in the freezer after. they'll be fresher, especially if the spice shop is local-ish online)
