How to dry your own home-grown herbs for cooking
When we moved to the farmhouse, nearly 20 years ago, I was intrigued by how many hooks were hanging from the beams. The space we now grandly call our boot room was once the scullery and it would have been the most practical room in the house – a place for cooking and preserving much of the produce grown on the farm.
I used to think these hooks were for meat, but now I suspect many were hammered into the wood to hang herbs and flowers to dry.
At this time of year, both external doors to the room remain open for much of the day, allowing a warm breeze to whistle through and quickly dry any bunches that dangle from the rafters.
Late summer is a great time to harvest garden herbs for drying. The last gasps of warm weather will have encouraged many varieties to flower, and cutting them back now can often mean you’ll get a flurry of new growth.
Even herbs grown as annuals, such as basil and coriander, can be cut and dried before the weather kills them off.
As a rule, I snip off the annuals at the base. The perennials get a haircut that removes about a third of their height. I’ll dry almost any herb – lemon balm, dill, mint, sage, summer savory, thyme, oregano – with two exceptions: parsley and chives lose too much of their lively flavour.
There’s no great alchemy to drying herbs. Remove any dead or damaged leaves and strip the base of the stems. This makes tying the bundle easier and prevents any trapped moisture under the string binding. I hang mine upside down in bundles, tightly bound; keeping herbs topsy-turvy helps keep their fragrant oils in the leaves.
The number of stems you can comfortably hold in one hand dictates the maximum bundle size – anything larger will struggle to dry. Herbs need plenty of air circulation and absolutely no moisture to dehydrate – any place with steam is a no-no or you’ll end up with mouldy leaves.
Most purists insist that you shouldn’t wash herbs before you dry them because it removes some of their fragrant oils, but if you’re worried about soil or bugs, lightly run your herbs under cold water and whizz in a salad spinner or dry on paper towels before hanging up.
Some herbs require faster drying or they risk losing their colour. Soft, floppy herbs such as mint, tarragon, lemon balm and basil need air circulation and warmth to crisp up quickly, so an airing cupboard or above a radiator is ideal. Woodier herbs, such as rosemary and thyme, will happily keep their colour for months, even in cooler spaces.
How long they take to dry depends on the herb and the location. A bunch of basil could take only a week in a warm airing cupboard. Rosemary, on the other hand, might need three or four weeks hung from the rafters in a cool room. The smaller the bunch, the quicker they’ll lose their moisture. Herbs are ready when they feel dry and brittle, and crumble in the fingers.
If you don’t have space or time to air-dry herbs, there are three other methods. I must confess, I’ve never tried drying herbs in a microwave, oven or dehydrator but many smallholders and veg gardeners swear by them.
The general principle is always the same – use the lowest heat setting possible or you’ll “cook” your greenery and end up spoiling the flavour.
Once dried, herbs can be stored for months in an airtight container – I use copious amounts of herbs in my cooking, so tend to fill up rows of large jam pots or Kilner jars. There’s nothing better, come a cold February evening, than opening a jar and getting a perfumed, redolent waft of late summer.
Three easy herbs to dry:
Rosemary: One of the only herbs that tastes almost as gloriously pungent dried as it does fresh, rosemary copes well with being air-dried and will happily hang for weeks, ready to be crushed into your favourite robust dish.
Diil: Cut dill any time in the summer and its fine fronds dry to perfection, keeping their gentle lemony aniseed flavour. Late-summer cuttings can still be air-dried, crumbled and stored in an airtight jar.
Thyme: Thyme should take about two weeks to air-dry but will keep its flavour for months. Hang in small bunches for speedy results. Try lemon thyme for a citrussy hit or caraway thyme for a subtle liquorice note.
Author and seasoned smallholder Sally Coulthard shares her Yorkshire plot with sheep, horses, hens, ducks, geese, an orchard, a vegetable garden and a pond and regularly contributes to our The New Good Life series.
You Might Also Like
