Drying herbs.

Not sure whether this is 'Edible Gardening', 'Herbs & Wildflowers', 'Recipe' or 'Non Gardening Discussion' so (with a woman's 'logic') I put it here

My little herb garden has gone beserk so I want to make the most of those I can't use fresh. Just for info I'm growing, mint, parsley, oregano, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, tarragon, chives and dill - although I'm not necessarily planning on drying the last two. Trouble is, I can't decide which method to drying to use.

Microwave? Many years ago I tried doing it in the microwave - disaster, even on a defrost setting they 'cooked' rather than dried and were completely tasteless (other than tasting burnt that is!). My fault I guess.

Airing cupboard? The downside of having one of those 'new-fangled' combi boilers installed, was that I lost my airing cupboard, so that's out.

Air dry? I could put them in the greenhouse, but there are so many plants in there at the moment that the atmosphere tends to be quite humid, especially overnight.

This basically leaves me with the oven option - a very low heat or a cooling oven?

And one last question (if I may), I've not grown herbs for a while, but in the past I always just picked them, washed them, patted them dry on some kitchen paper before drying, now I see on some websites it suggests blanching them in boiling water. My 'gut' feeling would be not to. Would you?

 

You can get good results by hanging them in front of a south facing window. Just hang the bunches stems upwards from the window catch where they will get plenty of sun and they'll dry out nicely in a 3 or 4 days.

 

And make the spare bedroom smell nice too!!!

Good idea - thanks for that.

 

My Grandma used to dry mint and sage in her warm kitchen in damp West Wales just by hanging them up in bunches. I think she might have put the bunch in a paper bag afterwards to keep the dust off during the winter.

I personally wouldn't bother washing them unless there was some special reason for thinking they were dirty. After washing I think they'd be more suitable for freezing than drying.

I don't think parsley retains its flavour after drying - the bottled stuff certainly doesn't. Mint, sage, rosemary and thyme should be easy - but then you could just pick leaves off the last three throughout the winter also. The soft delicate ones might be more problematic.