| Drying your Herbs |
| Drying Some herbs, such as borage, endive, snapdragon, and so on, are only used when fresh. However, many others can be dried and kept until needed. Here are procedures for drying herbs. Discard all brown or insect-eaten leaves. Wash all cutting or roots with pure water. Pat dry with a cloth or paper towels, making sure all mud, dirt and other contaminants are removed. To dry leaves, place the stalks on beds of paper towels spread on baking sheets. Turn them each day, making sure no mold begins to grow on them. Never allow them to lie in direct sunlight, or near an open window. In fact the best room to dry your herbs is in a room with good ventilation that is kept warm, either by the sun or artificial means such as fireplaces, chimneys (on second story), stoves, etc. (Ecologically-minded individuals are reminded that the paper towels can be used for clean-up jobs around the house after the herbs are dry.) The leaves will be dry when they are crumbly or even crisp. Strip them off the stems and pick out the larger stems and woody matter. To dry seeds and seed heads, such as dill, anise or coriander, gently tie together the stem ends and carefully place them in a paper sack. Tie the open end around the stem ends. The seed heads will be suspended within the bag so that no seeds will be lost during the drying process. These bags may be kept in full sunlight, or near the chimney. They dry quickly. Shake or roll the head between your fingers to remove the seeds. Pick out and discard the stems. To dry flowers, such as roses, marigolds, lavender, yarrow and so on, set on paper towels after washing and dry, as for the leaves. Rose petals are best separated from the bed before drying. (Dry rose buds whole). Lavender flowers and marigold are stripped from the stalk after drying, while yarrow heads are sometimes left intact. Roots dry very slowly; some say at least two years before they are completely dry! Hang them next to the chimney, or near the fire, or in any very warm spot. The drying times of each herb varies, according to its sappiness and thickness. The most important factor to keep in mind is that the herbs must be absolutely dry, or mold will form in the storage jars and destroy the herb's usefulness. If you need dried herbs in a hurry, hold them over an open fire, near the flames, as the old Witches used to do. Or, spread them on a baking sheets and place them in a slow oven (about 200 degrees) for a few minutes. Watch them to make sure that they don't burst into flames, or turn brown. Magical Herbalism by Scott Cunningham |
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