How to dry Herbs for your birds
For years I have dried herbs for my own use in the kitchen and as medicine for myself. Now that I have bird that like to eat her greens, I am drying herbs for her too. Let me begin with some very good advice; never use herbs that have been sprayed with pesticide, herbicide or found along the roadside. THIS ARE NOT SAFE FOR YOU OR YOUR BIRDS.
You can plant a herb garden easily on the sunny south exposure of your house or a deck, if you live in apartment. They grow easily even for those that the green thumb doesn’t work well. Lots of sun, good soil , a well draining pot (if you are planting a deck or patio) and something to catch the water (for deck or patio).
Let’s start with picking the herbs:
Pick in the morning, just after the dew dries and before the sun is beating down on the plants. This is the best time for the best vitamins and nutrition in the leaves. Also pick before the plant flowers. I use a small wire basket with a layer of paper towelling in the bottom of the basket. You could also use a strainer or colander. I snip the smaller stems with little pair thread snipping scissors. Anything with woody stem should cut either with sharp knife or pruning shears. Make sure to leave enough leaves on the plant to keep it growing, so snip just a few leaves at any one time.
Washing the herbs:
There are two thoughts on washing herbs. The first is soaking everything that you cut in colander into cool water or veggie wash, let it soak for a few minutes and then rinse. For me, this doesn’t work well because of the time it takes to dry everything off, even with salad spinner. I prefer to rinse all visible dirt off, as long as you have grown the herbs yourself, you know what they exposed too. If I pull up everything roots and all, I still rinse everything off. If I can not get all the dirt out of the roots I remove the roots. I lay everything on white cotton dish towel to absorb the water that you can not just shake off. Before you start drying herbs, they have to be mostly dry from any washing.
Drying Herbs:
There are 2 ways of drying herbs. Each has their own benefits depending on the herb and the time span it takes to dry the herb.
The slow drying method:
What you will need: Small Rubber bands, Kite string, cotton cheesecloth, needle, with large eye, nails & hammer and large sheets of absorbent Brown paper to catch anything that may fall through the cheesecloth. ( I rarely use this method)
A space to hang the herbs upside down such as a dry shed with rafters, a closet, the basement with exposed rafters. What ever space is it must dark, well ventilated and the temperature should be no higher then 95 degrees at all times. My thoughts on this are this method works best with herbs that are woody stems, anything thing that you want to save the flower buds and blooms and roots of the herb.
How to begin:
Where ever you are going to hang the herbs especially on rafters of a shed or basement or closet. Hammer in nails spaced about 10 inches apart leaving the heads of the nails out about 1 to 2 inches out of the board. Take the herb hanging upside down, put 2 plants to a bundle. Rubber band the ends, just above the root base, together tightly. With second rubber band, put a double piece of cheesecloth, large enough to wrap around the entire bundle and rubber band it tightly. Wrap a 14 inch piece of kite string around the cheesecloth wrapped herb; you can also sew a few stitches of the kite string through the cheesecloth. Leave a tail of at least 5 to 6 inches, with double knot at the end. This is what you are going to hang on the nails. I use this method to dry lavender; whole, sarsaparilla; for root beer, whole parsley in the fall, anything with seeds. Under the hanging bundles you will want to lay out absorbent paper either on tables or the floor, to catch anything that may fall through of the cheesecloth. This method may take 3 to 4 months to dry, plus you must rotate the bundles & check for molds growing on the bundles. (sorry I have no pictures for this method)
The Second Method is much easier, (just my humble opinion):
What you will need:
White paper towelling, a clean microwave, and some storage tins or dark coloured jars with tight fitting caps, sharp scissors, knife and some labels. You could also save your spice jars from store bought spices, wash and soak the labels off. This method works best for leaves from parsley, basil, dill, oregano, fennel fronds, chervil, chives (for yourself), wheat grass, any thing leafy.
After rinsing all possible dirt from the leaves, I put my leaves that are going to be dried in the microwave, on cotton dish toweling to dry the water from the rinsing.
Once they are only barely damp, I process the bigger leaves with either with a knife or scissors. I remove as much of the stems as possible. ( In the microwave they can start little sparks that can show up as little burnt spots on paper towel or a fire.) larger leaves of herbs such as basil, I roll a stack of 4 to 5 leaves into nice tightly packed roll, like cigar. I cut into ribbons of about ¼” widths with sharp scissors. I lay out those ribbons in a single layer on double sheet of paper towel.
I only microwave one sheet of any herb at a time. In my microwave this is what works for me. (Remember all microwaves are some what different so you may have to adjust the time// settings for your microwave.) I use the 30 seconds at 50% power rule. I check the herbs to see how much they have dried after each session. Most herbs that I have dried take 3 sessions with a 60 second break between each session. The herb that you are drying should be crumbly when dried.
I cool everything before I package it.
Once everything is cooled, I crumble everything before I package it.
Some things like Wheat grass will be harder to crumble, because they are stringer. Things like wheat grass may have to be put into a food processor or blender to make it a fine crumble.
I will add the rest in Part 2....
For years I have dried herbs for my own use in the kitchen and as medicine for myself. Now that I have bird that like to eat her greens, I am drying herbs for her too. Let me begin with some very good advice; never use herbs that have been sprayed with pesticide, herbicide or found along the roadside. THIS ARE NOT SAFE FOR YOU OR YOUR BIRDS.
You can plant a herb garden easily on the sunny south exposure of your house or a deck, if you live in apartment. They grow easily even for those that the green thumb doesn’t work well. Lots of sun, good soil , a well draining pot (if you are planting a deck or patio) and something to catch the water (for deck or patio).
Let’s start with picking the herbs:
Pick in the morning, just after the dew dries and before the sun is beating down on the plants. This is the best time for the best vitamins and nutrition in the leaves. Also pick before the plant flowers. I use a small wire basket with a layer of paper towelling in the bottom of the basket. You could also use a strainer or colander. I snip the smaller stems with little pair thread snipping scissors. Anything with woody stem should cut either with sharp knife or pruning shears. Make sure to leave enough leaves on the plant to keep it growing, so snip just a few leaves at any one time.
Washing the herbs:
There are two thoughts on washing herbs. The first is soaking everything that you cut in colander into cool water or veggie wash, let it soak for a few minutes and then rinse. For me, this doesn’t work well because of the time it takes to dry everything off, even with salad spinner. I prefer to rinse all visible dirt off, as long as you have grown the herbs yourself, you know what they exposed too. If I pull up everything roots and all, I still rinse everything off. If I can not get all the dirt out of the roots I remove the roots. I lay everything on white cotton dish towel to absorb the water that you can not just shake off. Before you start drying herbs, they have to be mostly dry from any washing.
Drying Herbs:
There are 2 ways of drying herbs. Each has their own benefits depending on the herb and the time span it takes to dry the herb.
The slow drying method:
What you will need: Small Rubber bands, Kite string, cotton cheesecloth, needle, with large eye, nails & hammer and large sheets of absorbent Brown paper to catch anything that may fall through the cheesecloth. ( I rarely use this method)
A space to hang the herbs upside down such as a dry shed with rafters, a closet, the basement with exposed rafters. What ever space is it must dark, well ventilated and the temperature should be no higher then 95 degrees at all times. My thoughts on this are this method works best with herbs that are woody stems, anything thing that you want to save the flower buds and blooms and roots of the herb.
How to begin:
Where ever you are going to hang the herbs especially on rafters of a shed or basement or closet. Hammer in nails spaced about 10 inches apart leaving the heads of the nails out about 1 to 2 inches out of the board. Take the herb hanging upside down, put 2 plants to a bundle. Rubber band the ends, just above the root base, together tightly. With second rubber band, put a double piece of cheesecloth, large enough to wrap around the entire bundle and rubber band it tightly. Wrap a 14 inch piece of kite string around the cheesecloth wrapped herb; you can also sew a few stitches of the kite string through the cheesecloth. Leave a tail of at least 5 to 6 inches, with double knot at the end. This is what you are going to hang on the nails. I use this method to dry lavender; whole, sarsaparilla; for root beer, whole parsley in the fall, anything with seeds. Under the hanging bundles you will want to lay out absorbent paper either on tables or the floor, to catch anything that may fall through of the cheesecloth. This method may take 3 to 4 months to dry, plus you must rotate the bundles & check for molds growing on the bundles. (sorry I have no pictures for this method)
The Second Method is much easier, (just my humble opinion):
What you will need:
White paper towelling, a clean microwave, and some storage tins or dark coloured jars with tight fitting caps, sharp scissors, knife and some labels. You could also save your spice jars from store bought spices, wash and soak the labels off. This method works best for leaves from parsley, basil, dill, oregano, fennel fronds, chervil, chives (for yourself), wheat grass, any thing leafy.
After rinsing all possible dirt from the leaves, I put my leaves that are going to be dried in the microwave, on cotton dish toweling to dry the water from the rinsing.
Once they are only barely damp, I process the bigger leaves with either with a knife or scissors. I remove as much of the stems as possible. ( In the microwave they can start little sparks that can show up as little burnt spots on paper towel or a fire.) larger leaves of herbs such as basil, I roll a stack of 4 to 5 leaves into nice tightly packed roll, like cigar. I cut into ribbons of about ¼” widths with sharp scissors. I lay out those ribbons in a single layer on double sheet of paper towel.
I only microwave one sheet of any herb at a time. In my microwave this is what works for me. (Remember all microwaves are some what different so you may have to adjust the time// settings for your microwave.) I use the 30 seconds at 50% power rule. I check the herbs to see how much they have dried after each session. Most herbs that I have dried take 3 sessions with a 60 second break between each session. The herb that you are drying should be crumbly when dried.
I cool everything before I package it.
Once everything is cooled, I crumble everything before I package it.
Some things like Wheat grass will be harder to crumble, because they are stringer. Things like wheat grass may have to be put into a food processor or blender to make it a fine crumble.
I will add the rest in Part 2....