Fast and Easy Way to Dry Herbs Off-Grid
Anyone with a garden knows, you reach a certain point in the summer, and it seems like your entire life revolves around, picking the garden, canning, freezing, or dehydrating what you pick, cleaning up the kitchen, and starting it all over again. You don’t want any of your hard work going to waste and that includes your herbs.
If you’re anything like me, your kitchen counter is always overflowing with all manner of preservation tools and adding a running dehydrator to the chaos just never seems to happen. Thankfully I found a fast and simple way to preserve all your herbs, that keeps things off the counter and is off-grid friendly so you’re not adding to your electric bill!
This technique works best in the heat of the summer but can be done in a pinch if you catch one of those abnormally warm fall days too.
Getting Started
First I cut the herbs I want and lay them on a clean baking sheet. I usually just make sure the herbs are clean but if you’re doing this after a heavy rain you may have to gently run under cold water to get mud off.
Doing this will add a little extra drying time because of the extra water that needs to be evaporated, but if you’re concerned about mud on the herbs, definitely wash them before placing on the baking sheet.
Drying the Herbs
Next I place the baking sheet on the dash inside a parked car. If you have several pans, you can place on the front seat as well but I’ve had the best luck with the dash.
This is best started in the morning so the herbs have the longest amount of sun/heat throughout the day to help dry. Depending on the herb, check in 12 hours, some may need to sit 24 hours. They will dry overnight too but during the day gives you the fastest dry time. You’ll know they are done when they are dry, crispy, and the leaves crumble when you touch them.
Prepping for Long Term Storage
When the herbs are crispy and brittle bring them in and let them cool to room temperature. When cooled, the dried leaves can be stripped from the stems and either crushed by hand or if you have a large batch you can put them in a blender or food processor to turn into a powder.
I like using this method of drying herbs because it frees up my dehydrator for other things and passively dries herbs in half the time as a dehydrator.
Let me know how it works for you!
