Garden Goodies

Even though this summer has been a dry one and my backyard hose has been my gardens best friend, I have some veggies and herbs that are going strong! I am so happy to be doing something with my wonderful smelling herbs!

If you know me, I am always researching on the Internet about a project I am interested in. I looked up drying herbs and most of the information had two ways to dry herbs.
One is hanging them upside down in a sunny place and let them dry the "natural way", which takes a couple of weeks. I did this and it just took too long! I love fast results! So this one was a bit of a waiting game and a bit annoying to me. Just because I am impatient.
The second was drying herbs in the oven. I got a couple mixed reviews of this. Most said to put the oven on the lowest possible temperature. Also, to put the herbs on a cooling rack set on a baking sheet before you put into the oven. It is said to do this to get the best air flow so the herbs dry faster. I decided to try it because I won't know how the dried oven herbs will turn out if I don't try it!

Here is a mixture of patchouli, lemon balm and lemon verbena, chocolate mint and basil herbs before going into the oven.

A lot of the information said that it takes hours and hours for the herbs to dry, but mine only took 30 minutes to an hour. BUT...they were WAY smaller and not as fragrant as the "hanging" way of drying.
So, even though my patience will be tested on the hanging drying method, I just wasn't happy with the outcomes of the oven method. Hanging the herbs and waiting is the way to go. Even for this impatient herb gardener.

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I have also done some research on what to do with the herbs after you have grown them and also after drying them.

One of my favorite things to do with fresh lavender is to use it when making sun tea. I got this idea from a friend in Michigan and it is so refreshing! All you have to do is to put fresh lavender leaves (or dried lavender flowers) in a slotted spoon used for brewing tea. Then set it in your glass jar while brewing your tea on the sun. Remove before drinking and now you have lavender sun tea.

I have taken some of the dried lemon verbena and put it in a jar then poured vitamin E into the jar and put a tight fitting lid on top. You let this sit for 3-4 months and you will have herbal scented oil to use in candles or soap making. The possibilities are endless for this.

With the dried basil, I put that into a jar with olive oil. Also put a tight fitting lid on and will leave that to sit so I can have basil infused cooking oil.

Got any ideas for dried herbs? Send them my way!

Happy gardening!