Some of you are likely harvesting out those herbs, so let’s discuss how we preserve them! Perhaps surprisingly, we use some of the most simple methods that are possible for our herb preservations!
As you might imagine, based on when you buy herbs from the store, the desired goal is to dehydrate most herbs. We’ve played with a number of preservation methods and have generally landed on air drying as our preferred preservation technique. Low and slow seems to be one of the keys to retaining pungency and flavor.
We essentially will tie up bunches of herbs and then hang them upside down to air dry indoors. This drying method typically takes several weeks to fully dry the herb bunch with timing variations coming from humidity levels and the size of the bunch. By hanging them upside down, we’re allowing gravity to force the herb’s oils and flavor compounds into the leaves, further increasing flavor.
Once the products are fully dried, that’s typically when we’ll de-stem them. We use an herb stripping tool to pull the leaves from the stems. This simple tool is basically a piece of metal with several sized holes, allowing one to draw the stem through the tool and remove the desired leaves. It’s a great late fall project, after the harvests are done, a perfect task for a movie or a binge of your favorite show. From here, the herbs can be powdered, crushed or left as whole leaf, depending on your desired consistency.
Technically, you can also use a dehydrator to dry out those herbs. Unlike when dehydrating veggies, you really want relatively low temperatures, typically around 100F or lower. This method is considerably faster than air drying, but it’s also quite delicate. It’s very easy to over-dry herbs, which will reduce flavor and result in an inferior dried herb.
We’ve generally preferred air drying to dehydrators as we think it achieves a higher quality final product. We’re generally not in a hurry for those dried herbs, either, the drying can occur while we’re performing our other harvests. It’s also much easier to hit “optimal” dehydration levels with air drying, unless you accidentally let those herbs dry for far too long.
Though people say you can dry herbs out in both an oven and a microwave, it’s not an approach we’d recommend. With higher temperatures, things can go sideways, fast. Save yourself the trouble and take your time with an air dry. All it takes is a little bit of string and a bit of time!
Though many herbs are frost sensitive, some can be left out well past those first frosts. Thyme, mint and parsley come to mind. So, if you want to keep some of those “freshies” going for a bit longer, feel free! We’ve got a lot to harvest, so being “done” with things is top of mind for us!
