Drying Herbs

Yesterday I primed the floor and this morning I put the first coat of paint on! Now, I have all day to do other things like dry some of my herbs for future use. There are many ways to dry herbs and I am far from an expert on them. However, I did have great success last year using a dehydrator. Today, I am drying two types of basil and some sage.

Cinnamon Basil

The bottom layer is cinnamon basil...smells so good.

Lemon-Lime Basil

The next two layers consists of lemon-lime basil...very citrus-smelling and crispy fresh.

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The top layer is sage, since it will probably dry fastest and need to be removed before the basil. Sage has a lower moisture content and can be air-dried (but I do not want to deal with this). You can also leave the sage leaves on the stems and put into the dehydrator. I chose to gently pick each leaf off.

This is the dryer portion of the dehydrator that sets on top of the stack of trays. You can add more trays, but this is all I wanted to do today.

I put the temperature between the 95 and 125 degree F mark. When it is done, I will store in small airtight, glass jars that I saved from store-bought spices and pimentos.