Oregano Harvest and Herb Drying

The perennial herb garden one month ago. Not much to look at.

A lot of dead leaves and weeds (of which I tried to clean out a bit of).

But a months time can be a big difference as here we can see just a section of the herb garden as can be seen now. What you see here is one of several oregano plants I have, many of which are four years old.

It all started when I decided to try my hand at herb growing for the first time four years ago. At the time we had no place to have a garden and rented a plot at a nearby community garden. Oregano seeds are extremely tiny seeds, so when I sowed them I was a bit nervous a breath of wind would blow them away or a simple rain would wash them into history. They took a good while to grow (it felt like a month or more), but eventually there were teeny tiny oregano seedlings dotting the row I planted. They didn't grow to be much, but upon realizing that they were perennial plants I decided to dig them up and take them home at the end of the season (with this particular community garden everyone had to pack up and leave every fall for the area to get plowed). Oregano, transplants very well. It was as though it never realized it left the ground at all. At our apartment I dug a small hole in the ground and plopped them in. Well into January I was continuously amazed at how the plant stayed green. It survived (obviously) and it has been transplanted in various locations throughout its life and each year it keeps coming back. It has vigorous growth, as can be seen with the images above. And this year I decided I would finally make a harvest of this herb while taking advantage of a lounge-y day at home (because it was 35 degrees outside- in May!) to do some herb drying.

There are many ways to dry herbs. I have adopted the oven drying method. I am not sure if its the best or not in preserving the oils of the herbs, but its the only way I've been able to successfully DRY herbs. Here you can see that the snippings of herbs have been spread out evenly on cookie sheets and placed in an oven.

The oven should be set to its lowest setting possible and the door left slightly ajar. You don't want to cook them, just dehydrate them. Check on them periodically by squeezing the leaves between your fingers, if they freely crumble, then they are ready to take out. Replace with a new tray of herbs and repeat and repeat, until you have as much as you want or get tired of baby sitting the oven.

I crumble the herbs over a baking dish and then transfer to a container for storage. Your container should be clean and very dry. The more airtight the better. I reuse old glass jars (in this case one that was used for honey) and they have worked out fine so far. As pretty as your homemade herbs may be you should always store them out of sunlight, like in a cupboard or pantry. And don't forget to label them... as I have and accidentally end up with a minty tomato sauce once because those dried leaves in the unmarked container looked like basil.