Harvesting and Dry Herbs
Summer is such a busy time in the garden. There is constantly something to harvest. Sometimes it can get overwhelming come August, when you’ve got tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers all ripe and needing to be preserved.
Herbs and flowers are one of my favorites to harvest because you can pick them, throw them on the drying rack and come back a few days later when you are ready. No need to wash and sterilize equipment or boil water. Drying herbs is the easiest way to enter into food preservation!
Tips for Harvesting Herbs and Flowers:
Pick in the morning after the dew has had time to evaporate.
Use a big basket to hold lots of material you’ll have more than you think.
Cut stems with a clean pair of garden scissors. In a pinch you can use your fingers, but a clean cut is better for the plants ability to heal.
If the herbs are dusty give them a quick and gentile rinse in cold water then put them on your drying rack
Place herbs in a ventilated place out of the sun. come back when the leaves and stems are dry and crispy but not brittle. Between 3-5 days depending on the humidity of your drying area.
Garble your herbs soon after they are dry so they don’t collect dust. As pretty as it is to leave a bundle of lavender buds hanging in bundle they will collect dust and cobwebs and then your work will be useless.
Let me know in the comments below what you are harvesting? New to harvesting herbs or foraging? Check out my beginner guide to backyard edible plants. Have a gardener in your life who loves herbs? Send them a bar of “The Herbalist” soap!
