How to Dry Fresh Herbs
Save Money with Fresh Herbs and Control the Ingredients in your recipes!
Fresh herbs can enhance the flavor of anything you make whether it's fresh tea, sandwiches or lunch, dinner, baked goods or even flavored oils. If you grow your own fresh herbs and can't use them all at once, you can dry them for later use and they'll still maintain their robust flavors. Drying your own fresh herbs will also help to save money at the grocery store! Learn how to dry your own fresh herbs easily to have them readily available for use with these tips.
Difficulty: Easy
Instructions
Things You'll Need:
Fresh herbs
Rubber bands
Drying rack
Time
Storage containers
Step 1
Grow your own fresh herbs
Use a large container for an indoor herb garden or choose a small area of the outdoor garden especially for herbs. After using the fresh herb leaves all season long and before the plants are done blooming, use the leaves for drying the herbs for later use. Fresh plants are only a few dollars each and will yield many leaves for you to use in recipes and can be much less expensive than buying fresh or even dried herbs in the grocery store.
Step 2
Remove the leaves
First remove the fresh herbs from their stems by gently stripping them off completely until on the leaves are left.
Step 3
Gather the herbs in bunches
Gather or bind the fresh herbs together in small bunches and tie with a rubber band, jute, twine or any kind of binder. Make several smaller bunches instead of one large one to make the drying process go a little faster.
Step 4
Hang the fresh herbs upside down
Place the fresh herbs on a drying rack or hang upside down and keep in a cool, dry area away from sunlight. A slow drying process will work better than burning them in the sunlight.
Step 5
Allow time to dry herbs
Check on the fresh herbs daily until they become slightly crisp, it could take 5-8 days or even longer depending on the moisture or dryness of the air.
Step 6
Store freshly dried herbs in sealed containers
Take down the bunches of fresh herbs and lay them out on several sheets of newspaper or cloth. Untie the twine carefully. Keep the freshly dried herbs in long pieces or you can also crush the leaves so that they will fit into jars or containers. Immediately place dried herbs into a sealed container until needed to maintain freshness.
Step 7
Storing fresh dried herbs
Freshly dried herbs should stay fresh in tightly sealed containers out of the sunlight for at least 6 months and many will last for up to a year. Use them for all your recipes, sandwiches or sauces to enhance flavors.
Tips & Warnings
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You may choose to hang the fresh herbs upside down instead of using a drying rack
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Store in a tightly sealed container until ready to use
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Be creative with using dried herbs and try them for teas and cocktails, sandwiches, meals, desserts and make your own flavored oils for dipping breads.
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Comments
I never even thought of drying my own herbs! Thanks for the helpful instructions. Great photos!
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