I was going to do a post about drying your own herbs. Because our winter was really mild, my oregano, thyme, and rosemary were going berserk. I thought drying my own herbs would be a great thing to do and blog about. You know, really cheap and poorganic?!
I googled how to do it.
I gathered them.
I carefully washed and trimmed them.
I put them in wads and rubber banded them.
Then I put them in paper bags. 
I made room for them in the laundry closet where it was dry and warm. 
I left them for several weeks. 
I unbound them.
I attempted to strip the dry leaves off the beastly stems. 
Little flecks of herbs went everywhere. I tried using a funnel. I tried crushing them. 
I eventually got a modicum of each herb, which may or may not have contained bits of stems.
I tasted them.
They did not really taste any better than my store-bought herbs from the bulk section of Earth Fare. My efforts cost me several hours of my life that I will never get back–not to mention a wasted “how to” blogpost.
Since I know you count on me to give you the honest down-low on what seems like a good, poorganic idea, and what is actually just a stupid waste of time, I thought I would tell you. My advice: Don’t dry your own herbs. Use them fresh or buy them dried. They aren’t that expensive. 🙂
(While we are on the subject of what not to do, some “homesteaders” show quaint, insta-gramish photos, wherein eggs that have not been pickled are stored in mason jars. That is a bad idea. Don’t put an egg in a glass jar no matter how quaint it looks on gingham! You’re welcome.)
What have you tried that turned out to be a waste of YOUR time?
I tried making my own pizza crust once, like twenty years ago. Gosh—a total waste of time when you can just buy Tombstone. Love this post. You’re hilarious even when you aren’t trying.
Amy in Wanderland recently posted…Thanks, Don Henley.
I have to disagree, but I LOVE making my own bread and find punching dough to be very cathartic. 🙂 I’ll have to give you my crust recipe.
LOL This post made me giggle. 🙂
Stacy @Stacy Makes Cents recently posted…Buttered Lentils
Bread. Way too complicated and the time I spent on it, money-wise, is not worth the few bucks to buy a loaf. 🙂
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I love making bread, but if I didn’t enjoy it, I agree, it isn’t worth it. Although, a bread maker takes a lot of the thinking out of it. 🙂
Katrina, I am sitting here thinking seriously? haaa I am so sorry you had such a bad experience in drying your herbs! I have never put them into bags, on a shelf, or in a closet…
I like to spray my herbs with a hose mid-day, the day before harvesting. I hose them mid-day so they will be free of dust and dirt before picking and dry before nightfall. I pick them in the morning after the dew has dried, but before the heat of the day begins.
I know you feel discouraged with time lost, I hope somewhere in your future you will give your beautiful herbs a second chance. We don’t buy what we can grow. I like to start suitable cuttings of rosemary with a bit of rooting hormone from my mother plant in my herb garden and keep them in a sunny location in my kitchen for fresh herbs through the winter months. I have sage, chives, parsley,rosemary, stevia, basil, cilantro, etc throughout the cold snowy months at easy reach in my kitchen. Chives are best fresh or frozen, same with cilantro.
I dry rosemary, thyme,.peppermint, spearmint, sage, lavender, hyssop, lemon balm. I feel some herbs are just best fresh, others dry superbly… I have over 100 plants of basil started from seed waiting now to plant, in the fall I will make several batches of pesto to use throughout the year.
We enjoy herbed vinegars and herbed olive oils. Great gifts too by the way.
Dee, I totally agree with you about fresh and I am still using pesto from last fall’s basil. I will not give up on fresh, but I don’t know that I will bother with drying again. Actually, I want to say that I think I tried a method once where you microwaved them to dehydrate them quickly and if I did anything again, it would be that. OR, even better, I might solicit my friend Dee to send me a little packet of herbs in the mail when I run out. 😉 Where do you keep them while they are drying though? It is so humid here, they would quickly mildew or mold in most locations in my house.
hahahhaha I love reading your blog just because of posts like this. Thank you for being real.
i’ve only tried drying rosemary. left it on the counter for a few days (yes, even here in the humidity, the AC keeps the house dry enough, i guess) then stripped in into the coffee grinder and BAM it was done. but i imagine it’s one of the easier plants to strip w/out getting too much stem… that was easy enough i wouldn’t mind trying other herbs also, but don’t know when i’ll get around to it.