How To Preserve Herbs
Posted on September 21, 2012 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Lifehacks
Estimated reading time: 1 minute, 15 seconds
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My garden was an unqualified disaster this year. As my daughter would be quick to tell you, it was expected my garden would fail…but this exceeded even those expectations.
Even my sunflowers withered after a promising start with lovely large blooms.
The only thing that has survived this year are my herbs. So this week I am going to dry them.
I have a large variety that survived: basil, thyme, oregano, chives and lavender.
The way I have always dried herbs is very simple: you cut the herbs, wash them, pick off dead and damaged leaves, then tie the stems together and hang them in a dark, dry spot (my butler’s panty) for a few week. When the leaves are crisp and thoroughly dried, you crumble them and store them in jars.
It’s a fairly simple process, but in the quest for seeing if that was the best method, I compiled some links that I thought I would share with you:
- Basil, air dried: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-air-dry-basil/
- Mint and basil, oven dried: http://www.pickyourown.org/DHbasilmint.htm
- Chives: http://www.ehow.com/how_4598246_preserve-fresh-chives.html
- Thyme: http://www.pickyourown.org/DHsage.htm – thyme
- Oregano: http://www.sophisticatededge.com/how-do-you-dry-oregano.html
The air-drying method I use seems to work for all the herbs I have, so I will stick with that, although it is a long process.
Do you preserve garden bounty? Share your methods below.
Photo by thekirbster
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