Monday, June 20, 2011

Drying Herbs

Gina's post about drying herbs reminded me that I had intended to dry as many of my herbs this summer as I could.




I borrowed my dad's dehydrator a month back to make mango fruit leather, and since I still have it here, I'm going to put "dry herbs" on my to-do list.





I went out to water my plants last night and noticed that a bunch of my dill is going yellow. That was like a knife to my stomach. You see, we LOVE dill! And during the winter when I can't get it fresh, I have to fork out $5.00 for a tiny bottle of it that is used up quite quickly.





So, when I saw last night that some of my dill is going "bye-bye", I was irritated with myself for letting it go.




I know that you can dry herbs in the sun or by hanging them, but I don't really have a place to hang herbs and I haven't really researched that process. I do know that I can use the dehydrator, and although I'll have to take into account the cost of the energy to run the dehydrator, herbs do not take long to dry so I'm hoping that our electric bill is not affected too greatly.





Besides, I'd rather do it this way and actually get it done, rather than wait until I find the time to research how to dry herbs by hanging. I'll try to figure that out sometime here before summer is over, but, just in case I don't, I want to get started on preserving some of these yummy herbs that are growing so prolifically right now.





So, I'll let you all know how that goes! ;) Hopefully I'll be able to fill up a few canning jars with some yummy herbs to keep over the winter.



Have a blessed Monday!


2 comments:

Monica said...

Your herbs look wonderful. I love the bright greens! I did not get any herbs going this year except my dill... I put up lots of pickles for my family.

Anonymous said...

Good luck! I tried your recipe for chive and dill roasted potatoes for Father's Day. We loved them!! They were a nice change from baked to accompany our grilled steaks. I will definitely use it again!