Drying Herbs

Last year's garden included an "herb spiral" which I wrote about here. It was a project we really enjoyed, from building the spiral itself to watching so many plants thrive in such close proximity.  

Ready to plant our herb spiral

Our thriving herb spiral later in the summer

We harvested A LOT of herbs from that spiral and we couldn't possibly use them all right away, so I took on the task of drying a good portion of them.  

Drying herbs is a great way to preserve them and also a nice way to share your garden with friends and neighbors. Some herbs dry better than others, so I referenced my gardening book to be sure I was choosing herbs that would keep their flavor and dry well.  First I gathered my herbs. 

    Rosemary, Silver Thyme, Mint, Golden Oregano and Sage.

    

Golden Oregano

After sorting through them, I used string to tie small bunches to plastic clothes hangers.

I hung all the herbs in a small closet with slatted doors. This worked out really well because it was dark in the closet, but there was still good air circulation. On each hanger I made a note with the date and checked their progress periodically over the next 2-3 weeks. 

Silver Thyme, Rosemary and Mint.

Once they were good and dry, I laid them out on the counter, cut off the string, and gently removed all the leaves, being careful not to bruise or crush the leaves.  Then I placed the whole leaves into mason jars and labelled each one with a small square of fabric.

To preserve herbs fragrant oils, crush, tear or chop them just before using.  All of our herbs dried wonderfully and added tremendous flavor to our cooking long after our garden season had ended.