Why Drying Your Own Beats Anything From a Shop

There is a particular pleasure in opening a jar in the depths of January and catching the scent of a summer afternoon. If you keep a smallholding or a cottage garden, you will almost certainly have more herbs and flowers than you can use fresh between June and September. Drying them is the oldest preserving trick in the book, and it costs nothing but a little patience and some dark, dry space.

Shop-bought dried herbs are often months old before they reach your kitchen, and the volatile oils that carry their flavour have largely evaporated. Home-dried marjoram, thyme or mint, stored properly, will smell so much stronger that you will find yourself using less. The same goes for flowers, whether you are drying lavender for sleep pillows, calendula for salves, or rose petals for potpourri.

The Right Moment to Cut

Timing matters more than technique. Herbs should be harvested just before they flower, when the concentration of essential oils in the leaves is at its peak. Once a plant bolts and puts its energy into seed production, the leaves turn bitter and the aroma fades. For most leafy herbs, that means a window in late morning on a dry day, after the dew has lifted but before the sun has had hours to bake the oils out of the leaves.

Flowers are the opposite: pick them when they are fully open but not yet fading. Lavender is best taken just as the buds begin to open, when the colour is deepest. Calendula and cornflowers should be gathered in the cool of the morning. Avoid cutting anything wet, and never harvest after rain, as damp plant material is far more likely to go mouldy in the drying room.

Use sharp scissors and cut stems cleanly rather than tearing them. Take no more than a third of any one plant at a time, so it can recover and give you a second flush later in the season.

Hanging Bundles in a Dark, Airy Room

The traditional method still works best for most herbs. Gather six to ten stems into a loose bundle and tie them with garden twine or a rubber band, leaving a loop for hanging. Do not pack them too tightly, or air cannot circulate through the middle and the bundle will rot from the inside. If you have a lot to dry, it pays to hang several small bundles rather than one fat one.

Hang them upside down in a dark, dry, well-ventilated room. An airing cupboard is too warm and enclosed; a shed with a window is too bright. A spare bedroom with the curtain drawn, a loft, or a cool pantry all work well. Aim for somewhere between 15°C and 25°C with a gentle draught. Light fades colour and destroys flavour, so darkness is not a detail, it is essential.

Most herbs will be ready in one to three weeks. Test by bending a stem: if it snaps rather than bends, it is done. Thick, fleshy herbs such as mint, tarragon and basil are awkward to hang and better dried on a mesh rack or in a very low oven with the door ajar.

• Space them out so bundles do not touch one another.
• Label as you hang, with the name and the date, or you will be guessing by November.
• Check for damp after the first few days and remove anything that shows mould straight away.

Flowers, Seeds and Tender Herbs

Flowers dry differently from leaves. Lavender, yarrow, statice and strawflowers will happily hang in bundles. Delicate petals such as rose, calendula and chamomile are easier spread in a single layer on a mesh screen or a sheet of greaseproof paper in a dark, airy spot. Turn them gently every day or two so they dry evenly and do not stick together.

Seed heads are worth a mention too. Fennel, dill, coriander and caraway can be hung upside down inside a paper bag, tied at the top around the stems. The bag catches the seeds as they fall and keeps them clean and dark. Leave it somewhere airy for a fortnight, then shake and tip out the contents.

Storing Your Harvest in Labelled Jars

When everything is bone dry, strip the leaves from the stems and crumble them roughly over a bowl. Whole leaves keep their aroma longer than powdered ones, so only crush them as finely as you actually need. Discard the tough stalks, which add nothing but bulk.

Decant into clean, dry glass jars with tight-fitting lids, and label each one with the contents and the year. Store them away from heat and sunlight: a cool cupboard, a pantry shelf or a dark larder is ideal. A windowsill above a radiator is the worst possible home for them. Keep an eye on the jars for the first week or two, and if you see any condensation inside, tip the contents out and dry them further before resealing.

Used properly, most herbs will hold their scent for a year, and many will still be perfectly good at eighteen months. Check each jar as you open it in the winter. If the aroma is faint, use that jar up first and plan to dry a little more next summer. There is something quietly satisfying about a shelf of your own labelled jars, gathered on warm afternoons and waiting to season a stew, scent a bath, or fill a little muslin bag for a restless night.