Drying Herbs

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Drying herbs is one of the easiest ways to preserve leaves and flowers for later use in cooking, cosmetics, health care or prescriptions or potions. There are three different methods for drying.

- Air drying by hanging.

- Air drying screens

- Drying in a desiccator

Hanging Herbs

Hanging out to dry herbs is a good way to keep them. But it will be necessary in a well ventilated, dark area, and one that remains dry throughout the year. An attic is a good solution after all the windows that allow sunlight is covered. In many situations, a person is also a basement or a room for this purpose.

The best time to gather herbs for drying in the morning. No need to wash them if they were spotted with mud. If you wash your herbs to ensure they are completely dry before putting on a group by hanging.

To hang dry herbs, tie beams or bunches of flowers with twist ties, wire, or even> Bands, and depend on a certain type of equipment, so that air circulates freely around them. You can use clothes, books or hang any other method. Make sure you leave space between hangers or parcels to allow proper air circulation for optimum drying.

If you are drying the herbs for cooking in this way, you can create the best results with bundles of herbs in paper bags, to find his thinking to grow as a dry dusty. This can be aslightly longer, up to three weeks, will stay clean!

may, if you live in a humid environment or area where you are in the grass drying moisture accumulate, wrapping gauze around herbs instead of paper bags will provide a better solution, providing more air circulation around plants, but keep it clean of dust.

Hang the branches of the plants upside down at least one foot from the wall and leaving at least six centimeters between bunches of herbs. While most herbs takeabout two weeks to dry if they are dark and dry, those that are covered with paper bags, or gauze, probably a week, maybe more, before they are ready, hanging open.

You can determine if your herbs are ready or not, or if they are completely dry, as touching. When they are finished you will hear crackling and crisp. You can use or store for some time, but keep in mind that since the water is evaporated from stemand leaves, their flavor is more concentrated than fresh herbs from your garden you choose. For this reason, reducing the amount of add recipes, perhaps half to one third, as you use if you have fresh grass.

After the dry grass, remove leaves from the stands and store in a tightly closed container or containers in a cabinet that is not open to direct sunlight.

Drying screens

Drying herbs on a screen or monitor relief, have increasedwith blocks of wood or other object shows a little 'easier for aspiring small leaves and flowers that are otherwise difficult to handle without damaging it or hang.

Dehydrators

If you are in an area of the country, the relatively high humidity makes the whole year there are over a dehydrator may be the only option for proper drying herbs. However, even if dehydrator to dry herbs like parsley and basil on hand, may lose their color or flavor, ifair dry. A dryer for drying the roots in about three days perfect, but especially small when drying herbs like thyme, dehydrator tray covered with gauze to prevent falling leaves around.

There are three different methods of drying herbs. Each has its positive and negative. Choose the one that best suits your needs

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