Dried herbs and Christmas dinner
On a whim, I decided to air-dry some herbs this past summer.
After leaving the plants on the drying racks for a few weeks, I loosely
packed the dried leaves into jelly jars, only adding a lid recently
since I was initially afraid that our high humidity would prompt the
supposedly dried herbs to mold. While I was putting on lids, I crinkled
each herb between my fingers and did a sniff test, deciding that the
basil smelled just like summer, the oregano smelled just like the plants
it came from (but not very much like store-bought dried oregano --- I
really need to find a more intense-flavored variety), and that the
chives and Egyptian onions weren't worth saving. Two successes out of
four isn't bad for a first shot!
Then, in a Christmas relaxation of our low-wheat menu, I added the dried basil and oregano into the sausage
and sauce for a holiday pizza. Delicious! I'm going to have to remember
to dry more herbs in this ultra-easy manner next summer. And probably
to plant some more fennel too since the seeds we harvested in 2011 are
finally running low....
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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I've been drying herbs for well over 10 years. Most of the time I put them in a dryer I got from a yard sale, which still works fine. I dried some sage "in the air" (read: on a wicker tray) when I accidentally clipped one of the branches. Usually the leaves of whatever herb I dry end up with mold or just look weird, but this time my "air drying" the sage surprisingly came out very well!
I would suggest you plant Greek oregano as that plant supposedly has a more intense flavor than many of the other kinds.
Chives: I've tried trying them, freezing them, etc. No luck. I've decided chives simply need to be fresh, so I have a small pot with them in the kitchen now.
And, of course, I have two rosemary bushes I bring in each winter that also sit in the south-facing window of my kitchen.
Drying is good! I've been surprised at the number of veggies you can dry as well. As the old commercial goes: Try it! You'll like it.