Drying & Storing Herbs

DRYING HERBS
Whether you collect wild plants or grow your own, you will want to dry some of them for later use.. But drying often decreases the effectiveness of the desirable properties. To conserve these as much as possible, you must be careful to dry your plants in the, shade, to avoid temperature extremes, and to disturb them as little as possible during the drying process.

The two best ways to dry herbs are:
1) spreading them out in a thin layer on a clean surface or on paper.
2) hanging them up in bundles.

Either way, use a dry, well-ventilated place where no moisture or direct sunlight can affect the plants. Select only the best fresh greens, and be careful to handle and bruise them as little as possible to avoid unsightly discolouration in the dried product.
For plants and leaves, temperatures 1hould be no higher than 85 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, for roots, not over 115 degrees. Small roots can be dried whole; large ones should be cut into two or more pieces lengthwise and hung up to dry threaded on a string.
To dry bulbs, remove the outer coat, slice, and dry with heat not over 100 degrees. To dry bark, scrape off the outer bark, peel the layers of inner bark, and dry in sunlight (except wild black cherry, which should be dried in shade). Plants are dry when the stems are brittle and break readily. For storage, the leaves are usually removed from the stems and stalks, which in most cases have little value in themselves.

STORING HERBS
The two greatest enemies to preserving the effectiveness of dried herbs are light and oxygen. Use airtight jars made of dark glass (or airtight tins) and keep them in a cool, dry place. Because a loss of potency with time is inevitable, do not keep dried herbs for more than a year. (Bark can often be kept longer but loses effectiveness after about three years.) Renew your stock whenever fresh herbs are again available. In case stored herbs are exposed to moisture, they can be dried again at warm room temperature.