Many of us are familiar with growing herbs in the garden. But, it’s a little more obscure to grow your own spices in the garden! Coriander is one such spice we can grow, so we’re going to take you through the harvesting of it!
Once your cilantro seeds set in and mature, the plant will eventually start to naturally dry up. You’ll observe the seeds shift from green/yellow to a sort of brown color, when they start to look like actual coriander. That’s your typical harvest time.
We do like to wash our coriander prior to drying and long term storage, just in case. For us, we’ll break off all the little seeds as it makes cleaning our harvest a bit easier. You can still leave them on the stems, though, if you like. Just rinse them in a tightly woven strainer, you don’t need to do anything too crazy.
You’re going to want to dry the seeds out. While you can use a dehydrator for this, you’ll preserve more flavor if you slow dry them naturally. You can put them in a paper bag, if you have one. If you’re lacking, you can use parchment paper in something like a plastic container like we’re doing. The paper will help absorb the moisture out of the seed. You definitely want to avoid plastics and such as these won’t allow the proper air exchange necessary for drying. You do want to ensure there’s still decent air exchange so moisture doesn’t build up, so no enclosed spaces.
Slow drying will take several days and we’re not usually in too much of a hurry. We’ll let them dry out for a week or so, at which point they’re ready for storage. We recommend shaking up your seeds every now and again, to help different parts of the seeds dry out. Once dried, try to get any stems or other bits out of the mix so you just have coriander remaining.
For long term storage, we suggest an air tight glass jar, as this will maximize the quality of your herbs and spices. Once properly dried, there are no issues with keeping your coriander seed at room temperature. Properly stored, coriander can last for several years!
