Harvesting, Drying, and Storing Herbs

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

This is the time of year when many herbs are ready for harvesting, drying and storing. This blog post will give you some tips about how to go about harvesting your herbs, how to dry them, and how to store them as well.  One herb that comes to mind that you should be harvesting now is basil. Here is the information for…

Harvesting, Drying and Storing Herbs

Harvesting Your Herbs

This is the first step to Harvesting, Drying and Storing Your Herbs. It is best to harvest herbs just before they are ready to bloom, or in the case of chamomile when it is blooming. Herbs should be harvested on a sunny day after the morning dew has dried on them and before the sunshine gets to bright and the day too warm.

Be sure to pick leaves or branches that have no damage to them from insects, fungus, or other diseases. You can either pick just the leaves or branches with leaves on them. I prefer to pick herb branches with their leaves attached because it makes drying them easier. The explanation of this will be in the “Drying” section.

For chamomile, you will need to pick the flower heads when they are in bloom. Don’t wait until the flower heads have finished blooming because they will go quickly to seed. Also, be sure to leave a few flower heads attached so they can go to seed and propagate new plants for next season (particularly if you are growing and harvesting German chamomile, which is an annual plant. In this manner, when you will leave enough flowers to go to seed, there will be new plants for the next growing season.

Drying Your Herbs

This is the second step to Harvesting, Drying and Storing Your Herbs. Drying your herbs is easiest when you use paper bags. Get some paper bags of differing sizes from large to small. Also, you will also need some wire that you can twist around the herb branches and the around the mouths of the paper bags.

The reason I pick herb branches is simple. You can tie the branches together, and hang them inside a paper sack. Then you can close the mouth of the sack with wire and hang it in a dark, warm, dry place to dry out the herbs. The sack prevents light from hitting the drying herbs, which is important so that the herb leaves retain much of their green or gray green color. Enclosing them in a paper bag also enables you to retain more of their essential oils from evaporating. The paper sacks permit air to circulate around the herbs while keeping light out.  And the paper bag has another advantage. When you harvest herb seeds such as dill or fennel, drying them in a paper bad prevents your losing any of the seeds. They simply fall to the bottom of the bag.

If you want to just pick leaves, you can do that and dry them in paper sacks too. Only be sure to not stuff a sack with too many leaves. It is a good idea to put a small amount of leaves into a small paper sack to dry. This will allow enough air to circulate around them.

You can also dry herb leaves on a flat surface.  Lay down some paper.  Then spread your herb leaves over the surface of the paper. Next, put a second piece of paper on top of the herb leaves and the first sheet of paper.

Here are two tips. If you use newspaper, be sure that the newspaper is printed using a non-leaded ink. Also, many herbalists recommend that you do not “speed dry” you herbs by placing them in an oven. This drying process reduces the essential oils that give the herbs their flavor.Let them stay in a cool, dark, dry place until they’re dried.

For the picked chamomile flowers, place them in small paper bags and tie the mouth of the bags shut.

Storing Your Herbs

This is the final step to Harvesting, Drying and Storing Your Herbs. To store your herbs there are some different choices and opinions. Most of the herbs you buy in grocery stores come in clear bottles and they are out in the light until they are sold. The disadvantage to this is that the herbs may lose quite a bit of their potency by being in the light. So, you can use clear bottles if you wish, only be sure to store them in a dark, cool, dry place where they will be able to retain their flavor. You have a great advantage because you have grown them and they will be more flavorful than any that you can buy from a grocery store!

Some herbalists store their herbs in dark glass bottles — either brown or dark blue — which you can purchase from a vendor who sells herbs – such as Mountain Rose Herbs. These darkly-colored bottles protect them from the light if they cannot be stored in a dark place. However, most people use clear glass jars because they are readily available from many different stores.  And that is OK as long as you keep them in a cool, dark, dry place when they’re not being used.

You will also need some self-sticking labels and a fine tipped permanent black marker. When you store the herbs, be sure to write the herb’s name and date that you put it into the bottle on the label. Then attach it to the bottle in which you store the dried herb. The dried herbs will retain their flavor and be useful for up to one year.

Once your herbs are dry and crisp — which usually takes about a week or two — they are ready to be store. Then, you can open up the paper sacks to check on them. When they are ready, remove them from the sacks. Then, strip the leaves from the branches and stems. Put them into bottles, labeling each bottle with the name of the herb and the date that it was put into the bottle. Securely fasten the lid on the bottles and store them in a cool, dark, dry place.

For chamomile, when the flowers have dried enough I remove any of the remaining stems, and squeeze the flower heads until they crumble. Then, store the crumbled chamomile in bottles.

Conclusion

That’s all there is to it! It’s a pretty simple procedure and a pleasant one too, especially when you dry and store herbs like spearmint, peppermint, thyme, rosemary and chamomile. Their aromas are a delight to smell. So, have some fun with this process as I do each growing season when it’s time for…

Harvesting, Drying and Storing Herbs

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