How to Dry Herbs From Your Garden

Drying herbs is one of the easiest things ever!  I've seen it done several  ways including brown paper bags, ovens and even microwaves.  I don't use any of these methods.

Here's my preferred method:

Pick your herbs in the morning when they contain more oils...especially you're planning to make essential oils from them...which is altogether a different post entirely.  :)

Know your herbs.  Some herbs, such as spearmint should be dried before they flower.  Don't use any herbs that are past their peek because they won't be as tasty or potent. 

I cut my herbs with scissors just to be sure I'm not damaging the plant by pulling to hard. Pull and discard any brown, withered or bug eaten leaves.

Wash in a bit of cold, running water.

Be sure you pat your clean herbs dry so they don't mold while they're hanging there....and it just makes since...why hang them up dripping wet when we're trying to dry them?  ;)  

Tie together at the tip.  I use plastic hair bands.  I used to use string or twine, but herbs and flowers shrink as they dry and tend to fall out of the twine.  I could never tie it tight enough.  My herbs {and flowers} would fall in a heap and crumble up.

One day I couldn't find any string but I did have a few of these little hair bands on hand, so I decided to give them a try.  They were super easy to use and they shrunk along with the herbs I was drying.  They worked so well, I buy them especially for my herbs now!.  They will eventually dry up and fall apart, but not before we have a chance to store them away the we want them.

Don't tie too many together in one bunch and the air will not be able to circulate around them all and they won't all dry evenly.   Several smaller bunches of drying herbs are much better than one large one.

Hang your herbs in a warm dry place to dry.  To much humidity or cold air won't help your herbs dry as successfully.  I just hang mine around in the kitchen for a few days.  I hang them is very small bunches so it doesn't take as long.  For bigger bunches I hang them in my basement or the garage depending on the weather. 

You can also hang flowers to keep. They look pretty and help us remember those special occasions.

The small pink corsage represented my oldest daughter at my Great-Grandma's funeral.  She was the only Great-Great-Grandchild at the time.  The three single roses were the first roses my husband ever gave my daughters and one of the rose bouquets were given to me after one of my miscarriages.

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