I like to grow a variety of herbs: parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary, sage, and cilantro. I always plant more herbs than we can possibly use, and they often rot, drown, or dehydrate in the Florida sun before I can do anything with them. I’ve been on this food preservation kick lately, so I decided to dry and bottle the extras.
I consulted Miranda Smith’s Your Backyard Herb Garden: A Gardener’s Guide to Growing Over 50 Herbs Plus How to Use Them in Cooking, Crafts, Companion Planting and More
How to Dry Herbs
- Cut herbs (1) and tie in small bunches (2). Make sure you leave enough string to hang the bunches.
- Enclose the herb bunches in small paper bags. If you live in a high humidity region like I do, Smith recommends that you wrap the herbs in cheesecloth so that air can circulate through the weaves (3). Either method is meant to keep the herbs clean.
- Hang the bunches at least six feet from the wall and six inches between bunches (p. 62). The herbs will dry in about two weeks.
- Strip the leaves from the stems (4) and store in air tight bottles (5).
totally awesome! I love the idea of drying my on herbs – you will know exactly how fresh they are and how they were dried. Thanks for the diy!
Sherry, Thanks for this information! This is something I never considered doing on my own, but is so doable! Pinned and shared 🙂
There’s nothing like growing and drying your own herbs and your instructions are so clear and easy to follow that I’m tempted to try!
Great information on how to dry herbs, Sherry. I’ve never even thought to try this. I would have thought it was much more difficult.
That is very helpful information on drying herbs, good to have the photos too.
I never guessed that it was this easy to dry your own herbs. Thanks for sharing this, Sherry!