Most of the time in our craft, we are working with herbs. The herbs you use can be store brought or home grown. If you are wanting to use your own herbs, you would need to know how to dry them and store them. There are a few different methods of drying herbs. Below I will go over the different ways you can dry your herbs and a step by step on how I like to dry my herbs. First, let talk about harvesting your herbs.
Harvesting Herbs
When harvesting your herbs, you should pick them before the flowers develop. You would also want to harvest your herbs on a dry morning or after the mornings dew has dried.
Try not to damage your plant when harvesting, you want it to continue to grow after you pick your herbs. If your herb has any flowers on it, remove them and place the flower back in the area the herb is. This will help with the continued growth of your plant.
After you’ve harvested your herbs, you would want to gently clean them with water. You want to make sure you remove all insects or any other things that may be on the herb. Then you would want to pat your herbs down with a towel or paper towel to remove the moisture from them.
Drying Herbs
Air Drying
This method is used the most and the one I prefer to use. It’s very simple but does take time for your herbs to dry. You would want to make sure that you’ve removed most to all of the moisture from your herbs. You can pat down your herbs with paper towels before hanging them to dry. You can hang your herbs upside down in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight. Some herbs can dry in a bowl or on a drying rack. I prefer to hang all herbs with steams and use bowls of little items that needs drying.
Dehydrator
This method is mostly used to dry fruits and vegetables. You can also used this to dry herbs as well. A dehydrator will dry your herbs quickly, but they are a little pricy. When using a dehydrator, you would need to cut down any steams in order for your herbs to fit. You would want to do the same prepping as you would with air drying and then lay all your herbs on the try. Try not to overlap your herbs because you would want to ensure even drying. Check your manual for drying times and temperatures.
Oven or Convection Oven
An oven is another great way to dry herbs and the best art is, just about every home has one. You would want to use a cookie sheet to place your herbs on. You can find affordable ones from any dollar store, Walmart, Target, etc. You would want to set your oven at 180-200 degrees Fahrenheit and place your herbs in the over for about 1 to 2 hours. Leave your over door with a small crack to allow airflow. You would want to check on them every 10 to 15 minutes to make sure you don’t burn your herbs.
If you use a convection oven and have a turbo setting, then you don’t need to have the door cracked open. This setting will have airflow. On some convection ovens, it may be called something else. Check your manual for your settings.
Microwave
You want to may close attention when using this method. You may over-dry or burn your herbs. You would want to place your herbs on a dry paper towel after your pat them down. Add them to your microwave and do 30 seconds increments. After each 30 seconds, you would want to flip your herbs over. This may take up to 1 to 3 minutes to do.
Storing Dried Herbs
When storing your dried herbs, you would want to label them with the name of the herb and the date you’ve dried them. You can use a small glass or plastic container. You would want something that has a cover or lid so it can stay dry. After grabbing your jar you can process your herbs by either keeping them whole or crushing them into fine pieces.
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