How to Dry Fresh Herbs

A few weeks ago I shared my experience with growing fresh herbs (here). Well, why not dry some fresh herbs too?

At the end of June, I came home from a bachelorette party to find a gallon ziploc bag of fresh herbs on my counter. Oregano, to be exact. I turned to J and said, "What the heck do I do with this?!" Uh, you dry it Trace. Right. Let's blame that on the late night.

Fresh herbs tend to grow in such abundance it's hard to keep up with them! So I was happy to take some off my in-laws hands. I had a fairly good idea of what I needed to do to dry the oregano but a google search never hurts. I used this site for reference.

You'll need a paper bag or two and twine to air out the herbs. Note that this method is good for oregano, but not great for a high moisture herb like basil.

After making sure the herbs were clean, I tied bunches of 4-6 branches together with the twine. 

I ended up with 5 bunches which I split up between two paper bags so that none were touching. I poked holes on the 4 sides of each bag for extra ventilation and then stuck the bags in our office for a couple weeks to dry. Forget they're there (kinda like I did), and let them completely dry out.

After a couple weeks they should look like this.

After removing the dried leaves from the branches I quickly realized I needed to add a step in. The dried leaves were just too big to be used a seasoning.

A quick turn through the Magic Bullet certainly did the trick.

I picked these spice jars up during a recent visit to the Crate & Barrel Outlet. A real steal at $2.

And viola! Enough fresh dried oregano to last the year. And I just love that it came from a local garden.

I think I'm going to need to check out the process for drying out basil next. It seems to grow like weeds so why not save some of it for the off season?

Question: Have you grown any herbs this summer? What's your favorite recipe to use fresh herbs in? I don't know about you, but I am a huge fan of caprese salad with fresh basil. 

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Fresh herbs, take 1

When we moved at the very end of May I told myself no garden. Not this year. There was just way too much to do and I knew a garden wouldn't survive. Plus, we were late to the game in planting.

But there's nothing like fresh herbs really. And during an afternoon trip to the Christmas Tree Shop, I found myself drawn to the cutest little herb pots. At $2.99 a piece, I figured why not. Yes, it was 3 weeks into June and who knew how quickly they'd grow. But I decided to give it a go. And even better, when I went to pay, they rang in at $.75 each! Now that just cannot be beat.

There were 4 options to purchase - Chives, Parsley, Basil, and Cilantro. I went with the first 3, I am one of those people who just cannot stand Cilantro. So no, I wouldn't be growing it for just J. Gross.

I followed the instructions as recommended - grabbing a bowl to mix the soil and measuring out the specified water needed.

The jars came with a soil pod within them. This was the craziest thing! It would literally quadruple in size once water hit it. I made sure to take a video when prepping the second jar but for some reason I cannot get it to upload for the life of me. :(

Once the soil was done growing I mixed it up well, added 80% of it back into the jar, dumped in the envelope of seeds, covered with the remaining soil, and crossed my fingers.

Something I've never done before but found incredibly helpful with these herbs - watering using a spray bottle. I keep it right next to the sink (where these are growing) and spray daily. This keeps you from over watering, and has really worked well for the parsley and basil. Sadly, the chives didn't take as well.

In just under a month the herbs have far surpassed my expectations. Maybe I do have a green thumb!? Next step, I'll be transplanting the basil into a bigger pot. As you can see in the photo above, it has outgrown it's baby jar. I cannot wait to use these fresh herbs when prepping meals.

How about you, do you have a green thumb? What is your favorite plant to tend to? What is the easiest? My mom will be giving us a few perennials to add to our yard and I am SO afraid I won't be able to keep them alive. Any tips are greatly appreciated!

Oh, and stay tuned! This post is take 1 for a reason. More herb stories to come. :)

If you like this post please let me know by leaving a comment or liking my Facebook page. You can also follow along on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. Let's stay in touch!