Drying herbs is the next step to enjoying your harvest. Most herbs dry very well and it is the most common way to keep herbs past the growing months. You must follow a few simple rules to ensure your herbs keep their fresh taste and medicinal or culinary quality.
Different Ways to Dry Herbs
Harvest blossoms just after the morning dew has dried. This means that the volatile oils and moisture in the plant have not been driven to the roots by the heat of the sun but keeps your harvested material from decaying due to being wet. If you are using just the petals of the flower, it may be just as easy to pluck the flower, remove the petals and dry just them. Calendula is one that requires the petals only. Dandelion is another plant that will yield better results if the flowers are removed from the greenery for most recipes. This also results in a faster drying period as the petals are more delicate and thin than the green parts.For herbs that will be staying on the stems until use, gather in small bundles and wrap tightly with a rubber band. Place a paper bag over the bundle to keep off dust and wrap a rubber band over it as well. Hang the now enclosed bundle of herbs in a dark place until dry. This will take up to two weeks for small leaves and thin stems.
For fleshier herbs, like comfrey and mullein, a dehydrator set on no heat or the lowest setting will work beautifully and keep the leaves from molding. Place them in a single layer on the dehydrating tray and put on lowest setting or no heat if you have that option. Close and keep running for 8 hours. Flip the leaves and run again for another 8 or until the leaves are dried sufficiently. For these two herbs, that means pliable but no moisture inside when you crush them.
Drying on newspaper is a viable and well used way to dry herbs. You will be keeping an eye on this type of drying, because there can be mildew buildup due to the plants not getting airflow on all sides. I flip my herbs over after a day and then again the following day, before leaving for longer lengths of time. This seems to cut down on any moisture problems.
The tried and true method of drying on old screens in still a wonderful way to dry herbs. You can use old window screens set on bricks to allow for airflow on all sides. Place these screens of herbs out of breezes however. Many herbs become very light when dried and a wind could blow away hours of gathering.
Speed up Drying
A dehydrator is also useful if you are harvesting a large amount of herbs and do not have the room to dry them all at once. I have an Excalibur dehydrator with nine trays and use every tray for most of the growing season. When it is time to wildcraft my nettles, I can do two batches a day in it. Keep checking trays for moisture and rearrange them to keep the airflow regulated. Nettles do not require a dehydrator but it speeds them up considerably and stacks them out of the way versus laying them on newspaper in such large quantities.
No matter what way you dry herbs, you will find that your own stock will taste the freshest of any available. The only thing working against you is time. It takes a lot of time to gather things at their peak of readiness. Doing it yourself is a rewarding task and I urge you to try it with your herb gardens this year.
