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Whether you collected your herbs from your own garden, from foraging, or from the farmers market, drying your herbs is an excellent way to extend their shelf life and enjoy them year-round.
Because you grew or gathered them yourself (or purchased them from someone you trust), you don't have to worry about contamination and other strange processing practices that can happen with large herb and tea companies. You know they are fresh, safe, and nourishing. And growing and processing them yourself is so rewarding!
Although there are a few exceptions, the vast majority of herbs do not lose any quality when dried. In fact, their potency typically increases after drying.
So how can you dry your herbs?
This is Part 1 of a 2-part series on how to dry your herbs. In this article, we'll cover the following:
- Drying Your Herbs on a Screen, Steps 1-4
- How to Use Dried Herbs
Let's get into drying herbs!
Methods for Drying Herbs
One method for drying your herbs is to dehydrate them using a dehydrator appliance. See our Drying and Dehydrating Overview here for tips and recommendations for dehydrators.
The 2 other main methods are to hang-dry your herbs and to dry them on a screen. Let's discuss the first of those now.
Hanging Your Herbs to Dry
Hanging herbs to dry is a great method for herbs with stems or other parts that can be bundled together and hung upside-down. Let's get right into how to do it!
Step 1: Pick the Location
To start, determine where and how your herbs will hang while they dry.
Decide where the herbs will be during the drying process. It should be somewhere with good air circulation and out of direct sunlight.
Although herbs will certainly dry in the sun, they can experience discoloration from "sunburn," and this can cause them to lose some of their quality and potency.
You also need to decide what they will hang from. This can be a hook, a peg, a rope, or any other creative apparatus that will work for you.
Relatedly, be sure to decide on and gather what will be used to fasten them to the hanging apparatus, whether this is a piece of twine, yarn, or rope; a clothespin; or something else that works for your situation.
You may choose to put a tray or similar dish underneath your herbs while they dry to catch any small parts that might come loose during the drying process. This is optional.
Step 2: Bundle Your Herbs
For this step, separate your herbs into small bundles. These bundles are what you will hang in the next step.
These bundles should be small enough that every piece of herb in the bundle will receive proper air circulation during drying. This is very important for hang-drying because herbs that do not receive proper air circulation may lose their moisture too slowly, which can result in mold and loss of quality.
In general, the smaller the bundle, the better. Of course, most of us do not have endless herb-drying space! So there is a balance between bundle size and space/materials that you will get a better sense of as you practice drying herbs more.
Step 3: Hang Your Bundles Upside-Down
Take 1 bundle at a time. Use the fastening device (twine, clothespin, etc.) to attach the bundle to the hanging apparatus you decided on in Step 1.
When doing this, be sure to hang your bundle upside-down, from the base of the stems. This is how the herbs will dry most efficiently.
Be sure the fastening device is tight enough to keep your herbs in place as they dry. The stems — and the herbs as a whole — will shrink a little during drying, so they should be tied tightly enough to prevent them from falling later on too.
Step 4: Wait!
Next, wait for your herbs to dry. This could be a few days to a few weeks.
The amount of time needed for drying varies by the type and thickness of herb as well as the conditions of the location such as airflow, temperature, and humidity.
The herbs are dry once they crumble when pinched. No moisture should remain.
Step 5: Garble and Store
When your herbs have dried completely and have no moisture remaining in them, it's time to process them!
Take them down from the hanging apparatus carefully. Your herbs will be more fragile now than they were when you first hung them up.
If you do not plan to use the stems in your future herbal preparations, now is a good time to separate them from the parts you do plan to use such as leaves and flowers. This separation process is called garbling.
So garble your herbs and store the usable parts in a container. A glass container such as a mason jar is best, but paper bags and BPA-free plastic bags such as these Ziploc freezer bags are other options.
Congratulations! You just dried and stored your own herbs.
In Part 2, we'll discuss the other common method, screen-drying, as well as what to do with your dried herbs. Check out Part 2 here!
Read More
Get inspired to use commonly-dried herbs simply yet creatively in these articles:
- Simple Uses for Chamomile
- Simple Uses for Peppermint
- Simple Uses for Thyme
- Simple Uses for Sage
- Simple Uses for Lavender
- Simple Uses for Rose
- Simple Uses for Rosemary
And learn more about preservation techniques in these articles:
- How to Dry Your Herbs - Part 2: Screen Drying
- How to Preserve Your Harvest: Main Preservation Methods Overview
- How to Preserve Your Harvest: Drying and Dehydrating
- Quick-pickling: How to Quick-pickle Your Produce
For more herbal preparations, check out these articles:
- Herbal Preparations Overview
- How to Make a Hot Herbal Infusion
- How to Make a Cold Herbal Infusion
- How to Make an Herbal Decoction
- How to Make an Herbal Syrup