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Tips For Drying Garden Herbs

Written by Lee Dobbins

Thursday, 17 July 2008

There are herbs that are grown in the garden for the simple fact that they are both beautiful and fragrant. Many herbs will be harvested to serve a practical purpose. This includes aromatics, seasonings, medicinal use, and more. In this case, drying garden herbs is required to preserve them. There are several traditional drying methods including using a bag, tray, or just the air. Here are some tips on how to dry fresh herbs from your garden.

Several flowering herbs also yield seeds to harvest. Simply give the flowers ample time to dry, then wrap some paper around the flower and pour the seeds into a container. The leaves can also be preserved with just a few more steps.

In order for herbs to be dried out, the stems have to sit in water for a while, first you have to take off the flowers and roots from the stalk and make sure they are all clean and free of any debris, then into the water they go so anything that was left over will be loosened, last they need to be dried by being left out on a linen or paper towel.

Place the plant in a small sized paper bag. The flower will now be gone, but place this end inside with the stalks showing about an inch to two inches out the top of the bag. Place a tie on the bag around the stalks, putting it upside down. Upside down meaning from the point of view of the plant. For example, the bag should be on it's base and the stems should be facing up. The leaves will become saturated with the flavor and the aroma when the oil in the stems moves using a capillary action.

Leaves will become brittle in about a week or two if the air has been moderately dry and without excessive moisture. Do not break your dried herbs at this stage. Gently separate them and put them in an airtight jar for storage. Later, you can use these dried herbs in potpourri or crumble them for delicious seasonings.

There's no need for the stalks but the leaf stems and leaves in the process of tray drying garden herbs. Clean the leaves as described above and arrange them on the tray without overlapping. Secure the tray in a dark, well ventilated room and turn over the leaves once a day to make sure both sides of the leaves are evenly dried. Then they'll be perfect for use in a couple of days.

If you're short on time, turn to your kitchen microwave for help. Absorption will be better if you place the herbs in the microwave on top of a paper towel or paper plate than a microwave-safe one. You can microwave for a few minutes on medium power. The variety and quantity of herb, in addition to your kind of microwave, will determine the time you need to cook, but 2 to 3 minutes is good for most uses.

The dryness of the leaf can be easily checked by just placing it between your fingers and rubbing it gently. When the leaf easily crumbles, it is ready for use. If it is not ready, keep trying thirty seconds at a time until it reaches usability.

Warning: After a certain time, you're no longer just drying. The way microwaves work is to agitate water molecules in food, which in turn causes the water to get hot and evaporate. When there is no more moisture in the plants, you're no longer drying and might be hurting your microwave. If the power level is set too high or runs for to long, you can accidentally cook the herb. Trial and error will help you discover the right heat and time for drying garden herbs.

The Article Author:

You can learn more about planting and harvesting herbs as well as get information on drying garden herbs at http://basicherbgardeningtips.com/ where you will get basic tips for growing herbs both indoors and out.

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