Drying and Saving Herbs, Part 1

In between trips to Michigan, I tend to my 5,000 square foot garden.  It's one of my passions, and lately, a huge stress reliever.  I returned home last week to a garden bursting with fresh herbs; a nice surprise, to be sure!  The herbs have been doing well so far this year.  It's been great!  It's funny, though, I rarely think to go out to the garden and get fresh herbs for cooking.  I'd love to use fresh basil in Italian dishes, if only I could eat Italian food!  I'd make myself a tomato, basil, and mozzarella pizza...add fresh basil to chicken pasta...throw basil into spaghetti sauce...but alas, it's not to be right now.  I'm focusing on the next best thing, though: drying fresh herbs!  Think about how often you use oregano, thyme, sage, parsley, et cetera for your cooking every day.  Now, think of how awesome it would be to have a whole jar full whenever you need it, and think of how great it would be to know exactly where those dried herbs came from.  If I can do this, YOU can do this!  It's so easy.  I'll show you just how easy it is!  Follow me!

So, here's what you'll need:

Twine
Sharp scissors (these are the special herb-cutting scissors I use, click here for a link, and no, I don't get any money for the link)
Herbs cut from your garden or patio pots
Ornament hooks or clothes pins

First things first: cut your herbs.  Try to do it when there isn't much dew on the plants.

Next, bring them inside.  Here I have three kinds of herbs: flat-leaf parsley, oregano, and basil.

Freshly cut from the garden.

Work with one type of herb at a time.  Check each stem for bugs.  Trust me.  I found a snail and a green worm in my herbs.  Remove said bugs by whatever means pleases you.

Arrange in bundles of about the same length.  Rinse with water to remove dirt.  Place on a cloth or paper towel in a single layer and pat dry as best you can.

Oregano--these were really tall, so I cut them in half before washing and bundling them.

Pat excess water with towels, as best you can.  They won't be completely dry.

Bundle and tie with a long piece of twine.  Be sure to tie tightly, because as the herbs dry, they will shrink.  Do not bundle too many sprigs together--it'll take longer to dry out if the bundle is too large.  Tie a hanging loop on one end of the twine.

Lather, rinse, repeat (metaphorically speaking), until all herbs have been washed, patted dry, and tied together.

All tied up and ready to be dried

Find a good place to hang your herbs.  I hang mine in the basement on the same shelves that I use to start my seedlings, near a dehumidifier, but you could hang them in a barn or garage, someplace airy but not too dusty. Hang them with plenty of space for air to circulate around them and allow them to dry.

Leave them be for a month or two.  No need to do anything to them.  I've seen that there are some people who have success drying herbs in their ovens, but I haven't tried that...yet.

Once they are dry, you'll crush them.  We'll cover that in part 2...click here!