Drying home-grown herbs

Tim Rumball explains how to preserve your herbs so you can use them all year round

- Tim Rumball

HERBS taste best when homegrown and freshly picked, but the flavours are strongest early in the year, and many are not evergreen so won’t last through winter. However, the plants can produce spectacular crops in spring and summer and there are several easy ways to preserve them.

Air-drying

The simplest method is to air-dry your herbs. This involves laying picked leaves flat on kitchen paper, or hanging small bunches in a cool, airy spot. Drying takes about two weeks.

Woody herbs, including sage, thyme, oregano, marjoram, rosemary and bay, are the best subjects for air-drying as they don’t have a high moisture content.

Pick your herbs in the morning while plants are still turgid with sap. They’ll have the best flavour before flowering. Regular picking often prevents herbs from flowering (when you’re picking herbs to use fresh, always pick off any stems starting to produce buds), but if some are starting to bloom select nonflowering stems. The flavour is not as good after flowering

Shake the harvested stems to remove dew droplets and any insects lurking among the foliage. Avoid washing unless it is essential, and if you do pat them dry with kitchen paper and leave in an airy spot to dry before proceeding.

Next, remove damaged, dying, diseased or yellowing leaves, as well as all leaves from the lower 1in (2½cm) of each stem. Tie them at the base in small bunches of about six stems each, using string or elastic bands.

Hanging around

Hang the bunches, well spaced out in a cool, airy spot (preferably not in the kitchen where cooking smells can taint the herbs) out of direct sunlight for about two weeks. It’s surprisingly difficult to find a suitable place to hang small bunches of herbs, but mine went in the spare bedroom. Check them regularly as the ties will loosen as the moisture starts to evaporate.