Drying Herbs

In my eagerness to grow a verdant garden filled with vegetables and herbs, I have to admit I went a little overboard on the herb part. We have two types of basil (sweet and Thai), I was so pretty and in bloom before she snipped me off!
cilantro, oregano, rosemary and sage and the problem is I don't even use half of the herbs all that often, like the oregano, rosemary and sage. I felt like I was leading the herbs on, giving them water and sunlight and food to help them grow big and delicious, and then I just let them hang out there in the corner and look pretty for the garden. But that isn't enough for me. So I decided to dry them. And it's my first time drying so you can learn with me!

Rosemary and sage were the first to go to the drying rack. Two weeks ago I snipped off several branches of sage, cleaned any dirt off of them with water, tied them together with twine and hung them upside down by a tack in the patio closet. It is important to find a dark, dry and airy place, which took a little thinking since I live in an apartment. At first I tried the closet, but when the bf came home, opened the closet to search for a jacket and remarked that he smelled a faint aroma of moth balls I nixed the closet. I then searched through cupboards and finally ended up with the patio closet even though I was afraid spiders might eat up the herbs. (They didn't touch them by the way.) And then last week in the CSA box we got a bunch of rosemary. Ahh! But I already have a load of rosemary! That's when I decided to dry those too; the same way as the sage. The sage took about 2-3 weeks to dry and the rosemary took about 1-2 weeks to completely dry. It was a very simple process, just took a little time and the leaf color dulled quite a bit.

Another way of drying herbs that is quicker and easier is : the microwave! Today I picked off some more sage and rosemary from the garden. With the microwave method you wash the herbs really well, de-stem them and place the herb leaves (do one type of herb at a time) on a doubled up paper towel. After you have put the paper towel with herb leaves in the microwave, cook them on a regular setting for a 1-2 minute interval and then for 1/2-1 minute intervals from then on. After each interval mix the leaves for even drying. Et voila! You are done!




Fresh -----> Dry





I enjoyed the more traditional method of drying herbs in bunches because I was able to check on them every few days to track their progress and I could see and experience the drying process. And if you were giving them as a gift or using them as decoration, the presentation of the slow, dried herbs is much prettier. However, the herbs were less fragrant and less colorful than the microwaved herbs.

I mixed the rosemary and sage together in an airtight container for safe keeping.
Not too shabby!

This past fall we were getting a lot of root veggies and tubers in our CSA box so many a night we would have pork roast with carrots, turnips, potatoes, onions, garlic and lots of rosemary, but I would have to buy it at the store because it was too cold to grow. Now I will have plenty of it stocked up for fall! I also made a lot of soup on the cold (very rare) days of winter and started them off with some bacon. Soups with bacon and sage are some of my favorites. Adding some chicken broth, noodles, and veggies made it so flavorful and homey. I was excited to discover the drying process is super simple and now I feel so good about myself for preserving the herbs to use in the months to come!