If you’re lucky, you still have time to run out and grab the rest of your late-summer herbs from the garden and do something with them before it’s too late. If you’re me, then while you were out of the country for work the temperatures dropped below zero and now all your basil is a disgusting black mess.
HOWEVER, there’s still hope for a good number of your other hardier herbs.
Since the summer, I’ve been hauling baskets of herbs inside to process. Some end up in butter (because mmmm, butter), and some, like the lemongrass stalks you see in this basket, go in the freezer. But most of them, I dry. It takes almost zero effort on my part and then the herbs are there for me to mix and package as gifts: spice rubs and herbal teas are quick and easy to make.
What makes it easiest is this handy-dandy herb dryer that I picked up from Lee Valley. Hang it somewhere out of the way with good air circulation (for us, that’s over the side of our main staircase), and then just shove it full of fresh herbs.
The mesh will allow air to circulate on all sides, meaning nothing gets mouldy or soggy, and some of your herbs, like lemon balm, will dry in a matter of days. And you didn’t have to do ANYTHING!
Added bonus: for the few days it takes these herbs to start to dry up, the hallway smells like pizza or lemons or whatever we’ve got in the shelves.
This is wonderful! Now we can dry our mint more effectively! After we rinse them, we usually pat excess water then set them on paper towels to dry.
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Which totally works except then you have to find a place to put them!
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So so true… it really clutters up the kitchen counters.
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That looks super-handy – I will have to make one! I bundle mine and put them in a paper bag to keep the dust and pet hair off. The paper seems to help dry them, too. Do you dry oregano? Because I have a HUGE oregano plant, and I never seem to do anything with it. It’s the sage I work with mostly – I make rubbed sage and it is soooo nice.
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I find they get mouldy if I do that so if I bundle I hang them from the wall and that seems to help.
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Well, I have a source for nylon underpants, and I’m sure I could get some sort of stiff wire and make my own dryer.
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I am curious as to this source of yours. Also if you make a version I wanna see it!
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Ha, it’s a work thing. I’m always throwing them out – be nice to have a use for them. Clean unworn ones, of course! Wire will be harder. And a place out of the way with circulation…
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A coat hanger would have the rigidity you’d need, provided you can form it into a loop. Do you have any high ceilings? Just make it not too long and shove it up high somewhere.
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What about the oregano? Like I said, I have TONS.
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Oh yeah I forgot – oregano dries amazingly well. You can bunch it or lay it flat and it’ll be dry in no time flat.
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Excellent, because hoo-boy do I have a load. Hate to just hack it and compost it.
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I know you’re not huge on cooking but it would also be great if you mixed some fresh stuff with butter and froze it, then used the butter in fry-ups and the like.
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Oh we cook every day! I’m just a bad baker 🙂 With limited freezer space. A friend keeps saying he’ll give me his old one, but it never happens and I think it is wrong to pester him about it 😦
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I would pester for it. He’d probably be happy to have it gone and you can use your mad forklifting skills to get it from his place to yours!
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Ha! It’s just little. BUT! He has a Fiesta and I have a Mini, so transport is the main issue 🙂
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You clearly need a friend with a truck whom you can bribe with beer.
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I could borrow hubby’s work van, but again it’s kind of presumptuous.
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Hmm, there is that. I’m sure work vans have carried worse than a small freezer. Those suckers are GOLD.
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We borrow it for our Christmas tree. It was just too silly having one hanging out the back of the Mini. Plus it got awfully dirty. Never dry here in December!
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Ick, I bet! Well you can always borrow it for the tree and pick up the freezer on the way back!
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Don’t want to wait that long! Turkeys are on sale now, €8 each – we are one of the very few who do thanksgiving in Ireland 🙂
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Didn’t even think of that – our Thanksgiving was over two weeks ago!
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Well I suppose we could do it whenever we want to. Hey, maybe if I invite my friend for turkey he will bring me the damn freezer? Hehehhe
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YESSSS!
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We do intend to BBQ it – could be interesting! Not met his GF either…
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