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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?
In this article, we'll cover the following:
Be sure to check out Part 1, which covers the other common herb-drying method, hang-drying, as well as an overview of all the drying methods. Read it by clicking here!
Ready to learn how to screen-dry your herbs? Let's get right into it!
Drying Your Herbs on a Screen
Drying your herbs on a screen is another reliable way to dry them. It is especially good for bark, seeds, and other types of herbs where the stem or other hangable part is not collected.
This method shares some similarities with the hang-drying method above, but there are a few differences. Let's get into the method!
Step 1: Determine Your Location
Decide where the herbs will lay during the drying process. Just like in the hanging method, this should be somewhere with good air circulation and out of direct sunlight.
For screen-drying, the good air circulation includes air circulation from below. Herbs that are dried on a screen placed directly on a table or similar solid surface will not receive enough air from below, and this can cause their undersides to dry incorrectly, resulting in mold and other quality issues. This is especially true with thicker herbs.
Again, air circulation is needed from both above and below the screen. So it is also important to determine where the edges of your screen will sit so that the screen can balance and allow airflow from both directions.
Alternatively, you could get an herb drying rack, which mimics a screen. This is the one I have and use. Be sure to still take all of the above factors for location into consideration.
Step 2: Place Herbs on Screens
Position your screens where you planned, and place the herbs on the screens.
This step sounds simple, and it can be.
But some herbs need to be broken — or cut, in the case of bark and other very thick herbs — into small pieces so that they dry evenly. Large clumps of herb may dry slowly and/or unevenly, resulting in mold and other quality issues.
So place the herbs on the screens in small sections or pieces.
Step 3: Wait!
The next step is waiting for the herbs to dry.
Just as with the hang-dry method, the amount of drying time is affected both by qualities of the herb itself and by environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and airflow. It could be days or weeks.
You will know the herbs are dry when they crumble when pinched. No moisture should remain.
Step 4: Remove and Store
When the herbs are fully dry with no remaining moisture, remove them from the screen.
Transfer them to containers, ideally glass containers like mason jars. Paper bags and BPA-free sealable plastic freezer bags like these Ziplocs can also work.
And that's all there is to it! It's time to enjoy your screen-dried herbs.
Are you stuck on how to use them? Let's discuss next steps.
How to Use Dried Herbs
So what can you do with your dried herbs?
Actually, you can enjoy your screen-dried herbs in the same preparations you would make with fresh herbs. This includes a wide variety of herbal preparations such as teas, tinctures, vinegars, oils, lotions, balms, and more.
Teas are probably the most common herbal preparations. We already have some articles that teach you how to make them:
- How to Make a Hot Herbal Infusion - This article discusses infusions, which are best for things like flowers and leaves. This is the tea method most people are most familiar with. But this article discusses how to prepare them in a way that maximizes their herbal properties. Read it here.
- How to Make a Cold Herbal Infusion - This method is similar to preparing a hot infusion but with some key differences. Learn how to make the best iced tea! Read it here.
- How to Make an Herbal Decoction - This article talks about decoctions, which are best for seeds, barks, and other thick herb parts. Read it here.
Tinctures are another common herbal preparation with a long history of use. They use alcohol to preserve herbal properties, and they are the preparation with the longest shelf life of all, typically lasting many years. You will likely recognize them when you see one. They are usually sold in dropper bottles. But you can make your own tinctures right at home! We will have 2 articles on tincture-making very soon.
Infused vinegars are another fun preparation. They not only preserve many vitamins, minerals, and other properties from herbs, but they also have a wide variety of culinary uses! I love to use infused vinegars as salad dressings and toppings on vegetable mixes, Simple Salads, Interesting Salads, pasta salads, and more.
Many herbs have other uses in food and beverages that are specific to the individual herb. See our Read More section below for a few common herbs as well as our simple uses page here. Simple uses articles break down the best and simplest uses for each plant, each herb that we have covered so far, with more being added all the time.
For other ideas on how to use your dried herbs, check out our Herbal Preparations Overview here. Any preparations that don't have their own articles yet will have them in the future, so keep checking back! And sign up for our email list, so we can let you know when they come out, and get a FREE garden planner while you're at it:
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 1: Hang-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