Drying herbs

[Redshire]

so I cut a ton of mint, and have most of it hanging to dry, but some is just loose leaves, so I put those in a large glass jar and left the lid off... I've been shaking the jar every once in a while to keep the air circulating, and to avoid molding (hopefully).

Is this the way to go about it? Anyone have any tips?

[Dio]

Sounds like what you're doing will work just fine. Although, paper sacks are usually better for drying because you get more air circulation going. You can also put your herbs in the oven on the lowest setting with the door cracked for a few hours and dry them out that way.. though I think that regular air drying is better. You just need to be a bit more patient is all.

[Redshire]

I'm being patient. I was just wondering if there was another way to go about it (I'll try the paper bag with the next batch), or some way to better preserve flavor, and to keep them from molding... yada yada.... I've dries chamomile before and that didnt work out too well (should have rinsed it off first!), but I didnt mess up the rosemary...


anyway, thanks. :)

[SSanf]

Last time I did that, I just pulled up the plants, roots and all, hung them in the sun on the back porch and when they were crispy, stripped the leaves.

Seemed to work fine.

I would spread the loose leaves between a couple of sheets of newspaper (weighted down) and sit them in the sun on a dry surface.

[Crysiira]

I laid my mint leaves out on a paper towel and let them dry for a day or two; that seemed to work just fine.

[Laisrean]

The way I always heard to do it is pull the entire plant up, roots and all, and then tie some string around the roots and hang the plant upside down in a cool dry place for as long as it takes. Barns and garages and basements are ideal for this purpose.

[RunningBear]

There are a load of tips =>Here (http://www.theepicentre.com/tip/herbs1.html)<= for harvesting and storing herbs.