Refresh Friday *How To Dry Your Own Herbs*

It's the time of year that we start to think about our gardens.  This post is from last year, it is the most popular post on my blog of all time!  I thought I would share it again for those of you who missed it the first go around.  I think at the time I had about......... hmmmmmm, 50 readers at the time so a few of you may not have seen it.  

I also wanted to update this to say:  My husband even dried some of my dill the same way last year.  I was out of town and a huge storm broke some of my dill plants.  So, he dried it all on his own and it worked perfectly.  So, ANY. ONE. can do this. Enjoy.

Because I have so much beautiful basil, but no dehydrator, I have had to figure out how do dry it in my oven.  It is super simple.  I have dried basil, dill, sage, parsley, and mint this way.  It has worked very well for all of them.

Start by pre-heating your oven to the lowest setting it will go to. For mine that is 170.

Next wash a big pile of basil (or what ever herb you are drying).

Now you want to get your pan ready.  I have found the best way to do this is by using a cooling rack inside a cookie sheet.

This way your herbs wont burn as they are drying and the pan heats up.

Next you are going to strip off all the leaves from the stems.  You don't have to wast much, any bad leaves and the thick stems.

This is all I wasted from the big pile I had.

Now you will lay out all the leaves on the cooling rack.

As you can see the very tops where four or five of them are together I just left together and put on.  If you take them apart the little leaves wont stay on the rack.

*A note about other herbs.  If you have a herb, like basil, with big leaves it is pretty easy to lay them out.  When I did dill I left the the stems together. Then pulled them apart after they were done drying.*

Put them in the oven.  Mine usually take any ware from 1 and a half hours to 4 hours.  Depending on how humid it is and how wet your herbs are.  If you live in a very dry area you might want to check them after half hour.

This is what they look like when they are done.  Very dry and crunchy (yes that is the technical term!).  They should break easily when you pick them up.

Now put them in your cute, crafty, fun container that I know you all have on hand just waiting for something to fill it with.  Just like me.......

Or, if you really are just like me you will just put them in a sandwich bag until you can come up with a better container.  I did two pans and got almost a full bag.  It is a very good idea to write what you put in the bag.
Some of the herbs look very similar after they are dried.  I'll admit it, I have had to taste them to know for sure what I was using.

Thanks for hangin out.