Ever Dry and Store Your Own?

Herbs like pepper, onion, vanilla , coriander ,these herbs is not only spices but also can be eaten like vegetables ,Ginger is spices but should be cut into powder more delicious to let ginger good smells. Other herb remind me to cook food with is vegetables themselves, some garlic clove ,marshed garlic, they will remind you when you cook meat, when you eat meat cake. Beside, fennel, catnip also be good, with some special food like beef. Cat is interesting, if becomes cat's play tools ,also funny.

Yes, when I was still married we lived in a house where we had a garden out back and a herb garden just out the back door. I got a couple of herb books and some containers and went for it. I made fresh herb bouquets for Thanksgiving and they were raves. I had corriander, basil, sage, rosemary and oregano. It was such fun, planting them, watching them grow, and harvesting them.

Hello NailTeck. I find working with herbs to be very interesting. I live with my daughter and we have dried some herbs such as chives, oregano, basil, and thyme. In the past I have grown and dried horehound. I have found that the mints tend to like to spread so planted them in containers to keep them in bounds. I find it interesting that so many herbs can be medicinal. I use the horehound for colds and any other lung problems. My grandmother has told me about how they dried corn and beans and other vegetables and fruits when she was young. The beans were strung on string and the corn was put in a pillow case and hung on the clothes line and shaken often

Thanks for the discussion. I've dried basil every year with a dehydrator machine I found in a thrift store. It has trays in it and I lay the leaves on them, stack the trays and turn on the machine. I need to get thyme and coriander growing this year so I can dry them. I know a friend of mine does her potpourri using dried rose petals, lavender, and several other ingredients and she uses a dehydrator machine also. It makes it easy and keeps it from being all over the house. When I lived in south Texas, I used to dry Bay leaves by laying them out on cake rakes and setting them on our front porch. Worked really well. The cake rakes allowed the air flow on top and bottom of the leaf and didn't take as long as it does other ways. I need to decide what I'm going to grow this year. Thanks for the reminder!

i have never did that, but when i grew up we use to go out in the woods and find herbs such as ginsane and bring it home and dry it out and sell it.. it was so much and ounce and we did pretty good.. well my mom did i was young.. and we use to string green beans on a thread and hang them on the back porch to dry out and make what mama called shuck beans.. i never liked them.. but love to string them every day.. and we use to grow our own popcorn as well.. i was suprised to learn at a young age popcorn grown in the ground like potaotes.. but as for spices i love to mess with new spices and try different ones.. my aunt has mint leaves growing by her house along the creek bank.. but i hate mint as well..and i do like to put a whole bay leaf in my chili pot to cook.. best wishes with your cooking and spices..

That's great! Girls, or women can do that. But we, boys, men, in our busy schedule, we envy your for that. I want to do that also, but I don't have the free time to do those things.

I dry sage, oregano and mint and have dried several other herbs. I usually just put them out on a plate on top of the refrigerator for a couple of days. That would work for any herb that you use the leaf or flower. Grow and dry whatever herbs you like to use; they're fun to do.

I harvest my herbs on a regular basis. It's so easy to dry them for use (and saving a LOT of money on the ones like oregano and fennel. I simply clip the long stalks from the plant and lay them out on a cookie sheet and set them in the sun or in the stove (mine still has the pilot light) to allow them to dry. I strip them off the stalks and then put the leaves in the bottles. I not only use the cat nip for the cats but I also use it with my tea. Cat nip is a great sedative, pain reliever, muscle relaxant and more. I usually use it fresh in my tea, but I also have the dried for the winter months when the cat nip is dormant. Do you allow your cat nip to propagate itself? I allow all my herbs to go to seed in the fall so that I don't have to spend a ton of money replacing it. Have you tried lemon tarragon? It is wonderful as a garnish when you are putting your chicken in for baking. I tried it and it is wonderful! I just clipped a few sprigs of the herb and laid it on the chicken before I put it in. Also hot oregano is super in many dishes. I still need to find some this year. Last year there wasn't any available...I need to stop by a local herb farm and see if they have found it yet. Anyhow, nearly every herb is able to be dried. I have a huge bag of oregano in the cupboard...that stuff grows like weeds! Also parsley, dill, tarragon, cat nip, and more. I have had to buy large jars to hold all the fresh dried herbs, which are much stronger than the stuff you buy in the store; simply because it isn't as old as the stock the store has.