Drying & Processing Herbs

Drying and Processing Herbs

First gather the fresh herbs you want to use. The herbs I use are what I can easily get where I am located. If you have access to others, do your research first, and use those. You are not restricted to just what I use. Be sure the herbs you choose to use are safe for yourself and everyone else before you decide to add them to your salves. 

For my general healing salve, I use plantain, purslane,

dandelion, horsetail, yarrow, calendula, lavender, rose, spruce, lemongrass, rosemary, peppermint, clover, feverfew, cayenne, stinging nettle, thyme, oregano, usnea, chamomile. This is the basic salve recipe but there are others I can and have used, i.e. creeping charlie, dead nettle, hen bit, sow thistle. All of these have anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, healing properties. You might want to do an allergy test before using these herbs, just to make sure you aren't making a salve that you react to. Know the herbs you are using. If in doubt, skip it.

I enjoy gathering, drying and working with herbs. It's relaxing to be out in the fresh air and sunshine, gathering. I like the herbal smell they give my house and I find the handling of the fresh herb to be healing, especially for my hands. I try to gather leaves and flowers with long stems or small branches so I can hang them in bunches. I dry small pieces on a paper towel, turning them daily or on a screen. If you can score some large screens and bricks you can make a screen shelf on a covered porch, specifically for drying herbs and seeds. I like to put a layer of window sheers over the screens to catch the tiniest seeds and herb pieces. If this set up is outside, the mice and squirrels will like it too. That's what cats are for..

You can dry herbs quickly in your car on a hot day and
your car will smell wonderful. You can dry them in the oven on a very low setting. You can also dry them in the microwave, but I don't recommend it. It only works well if the herbs are half dry to begin with. If you put fresh herbs in the microwave, they will often spark and start a fire. Not recommended! Believe me...it can happen...I know... I think many of the stronger herbs contain too much mineral for the microwave. I prefer to dry them naturally. It takes about two weeks in the home for them to be completely dry. It's important that all ingredients in the salve be completely dry. Even one small drop of moisture of any kind, and the salve will grow mold. 

I use tin ties to tie the bunches of herbs. (No, I didn't put the tin ties in the microwave. lol). I add a scrap of paper as a label. The dried herbs often all look alike, so it's important to label them. I then tie the bunches to a clothes hanger for easier hanging. I have strung wire under the porch roof for hanging, I have hung herbs on lights and lamps, on hooks in the wall, on shelves, on string across the wall, on curtain rods, on ceiling fans, anywhere I can find to hang them.

If you are hanging herbs to dry naturally, you will need to

tighten the ties every day for a few days. The herbs will shrink as they dry and fall out. If your floors are clean, and you can get to them before the dogs and cats, I would just hang them up again. I hang herbs high enough to be out of the reach of the cats. Mine love horsetail and anything minty! 

When the herbs are very dry, I crumble and grind in my spice grinder, if they need it. Some are fine enough without grinding. Then they go into glass jars with tight lids. Clean pickle jars work well. Any clean glass jar will be fine. The herbs will keep for a very long time like this. I collect, dry and process them in the growing season, then make the salves in the winter.

Too Many Sweet Peppers!

 

I got these peppers at the grocery store, all in one large bag marked down. They do this sometimes when they have produce that's not selling. It's usually bananas, but yesterday it was bell peppers. I grabbed two bags and was lucky to get thoese. Other women were grabbing at the basket too. 

I wanted these for drying. It's an experiement I have wanted to do for along time so, since I got these cheap, I tried it today. I have seen photos of apple rings drying on a stick or a string across a window and have often though, "I wonder if that would work for peppers...hmmmmmm...". I'm trying it in my window, as well as in the oven. 

I sliced them all into thin rings, trying to keep them similar thicknesses. I hung most of the rings on the wooden chopsticks and put them in the oven on "Keep Warm". I think it may be too hot, sitting at 170f. Drying temperature is quite a bit cooler but it's all I have, so I used it. 

I put the rest of the rings in the window on a small wooden piece of dowel I had hanging around. I washed it first, of ocurse. I used a Farmer's Market display thing to hold it. (I have a LOT of Farmer's Market displays I have made in the past few years, just hanging around in the garage.)

The little pieces got chopped up and spread out of paper towels to dry. I have dried a lot of seeds and herbs this way in the past years, so I'm trying it with peppers. 

I kept the peppers in the oven for hours. I turned it off from time to time and just left them in there to dry. It works for meringue kisses...

When I took them out to roast a chicken in the oven, they were still not quite crispy dry, so I just put them on my resin counter top to finish drying. They look kind of shriveled and dark. I think they look okay and they have gotten dryer and crispier over the evening. I may still leave them out until morning, just to make sure they are dry enough. Then crush them into a glass jar. Do they look okay? Too dark? What do you think? They look kind of overcooked to me, maybe "roasted"?

They don't look very appetizing, but then something dried never does. They sure do smell good! Very much like green bell peppers. Well, I don't think I'll do the oven thing again. I may stick with drying rings on a stick or a string in a sunny window.

Drying things in a vehicle on a sunny day works well too. I've done herbs like that. The truck smells wonderful on those days! ("Stinky!" is what hubby calls it...)

I'll post again with the results of the pepper rings on the stick in the sunny window, when they are ready.

We get our motorhome back from the garage on Saturday. I'll have to find a spot for drying things in there when we hit the road. 

  

Squash is one of my favourite vegetables from the garden. This also includes the sweet pumpkins, which are in the same family. It is so versatile and so good for you! It can be boiled, baked, sliced for the BBQ, grilled, baked in a pie for dessert and made into delicious soup. It can also be eaten with lots of real butter and a drop of maple syrup for a side vegetable dish.

I took an interest in the various different types of squash this year and planted five different kinds of winter squash. Having grown only hubbard, acorn and buttercup in the past, I was astounded at all the types of winter squash available out there. Some have long growing seasons and may not do well up here, but most of them look like they will produce well enough if started early indoors and given lots of hot, sunny weather. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the hot, sunny weather this year, but I think we will have plenty of squash, nonetheless.

In the actual vegetable garden, I planted hubbard, ambercup (a golden buttercup type), butternut and nutty delicata. I have never grown the nutty delica squash before, but I thought it sounded good. I love nuts and this is suppose to have a “nutty” flavour. It is a relatively new Japanese ebisu hybrid type. I have not previously grown butternut, either, although I have eaten it and seen it in the stores.

I planted acorn squash in the back field on the fence. Only two of those came up but I grew a very large acorn squash plant in the front flowerbed. It was an accidental dropping of the seed in the wrong place, but that bed was new and needed some greenery anyway, so I left it there. 

It took over a large part and is producing extremely well, much better than the same seed grown on the back fence. I think that is due to the extra chicken manure dug into the flower beds. It looked nice there too with the large golden blossoms and huge green leaves. I may consider doing that again next year. Is that what is referred to as a “Potager Garden” – veggetables mixed in with the flowers? I like it. It had four little squash on it until yesterday. I accidentally left the gate open and the chickens got into the front yard. They ate three of the little squash. I managed to cover the other one up with a bucket for the rest of the evening. They had not found it yet. The vegetable garden has a fence around it to keep out the groundhogs that live under the garage, so the chickens cannot get in there.

In my search for squash types, I found one in particular that interested me. It was the Hopi pale gray winter squash. I came across a reference to it as being an especially good “keeper”. These squash are an heirloom variety originally grown by the Hopi indians but have almost dissappeared. When I tried to find a source, I was dissappointed. The Hopi squash are very difficult to acquire. I did manage to get some seeds, in a trade from this year, 2009, for both the Hopi pale gray and the Hopi black squash, to grow for next year. Since they are from more southern regions I will start them very early next spring on a heating source. I am excited about growing these next year to test for the perfect squash and as a source of rare seed.

All of my winter squash plants have small squash growing on them, except for the butternut. The first female butternut flower opened this morning. I hand pollinated it. Even the long seasoned hubbard has small squash growing. We have had exceptionally cool weather this year. I don’t know why there is a difference. 

Perhaps the butternut need more heat? They are all in the same bed and have received the same treatment. I planted the butternut because I read that they were good producers, making a lot of squash on one plant. We will see how it goes…

I am looking for the perfect squash. One that is not stringy, keeps all year and has a fabulous, sweet and nutty taste. Is there such a thing?

Squash like to be grown in very light, loose soil so the roots are well aerated. They are nutrient hogs and like a lot of water, without being waterlogged (see previous sentence). I dug chicken manure into the hills where I planted the squash and I have occasionally fed them with organic commerical transplant fertilizer with a high phosphorus content, that I bought at a garage sale. Avoid using a high nitrogen fertilizer as this causes lots of leaves and few squash.

Squash, pumpkins and gourds are all from the same general family and all depend on bees for their pollination, so a small and dwindling bee population causes a poor harvest. (What will we do when there are no more bees?? ) Last year I had a lot of flowers and very few squash, signalling poor pollination. I am hand pollinating my squash this year and it has made a difference. All of the female flowers that opened were hand pollinated and are now growing small squash. This is exicing and so rewarding! I did that myself! It can be frustrating when the male flowers are plentiful and the female flowers have not opened yet.

Male Squash/Pumpkin Flower

The male floers open first in the center of the vine. The female flowers are located further along the central vine and on the lateral branches. The male flowers are on taller stalks while the female flowers sit tighter against the branch on a little ball which, if pollinated, will be the growing squash.

 

Female Squash/Pumpkin Flower

To pollinate the female flowers you will need to use a small paintbrush. Just rub the paintbrush against the pollen in the male flower and then paint the pollen onto the center of the female flower. You can also pick the male flower, remove all but the pollen sitck and rub it against the center of the female flower. I prefer to use a paintbrush and leave the male flower growing where it is, to be used again later unless there are plenty of open male flowers.

There are many rare and delicious winter squash out there, yet to be discovered. Some are heirloom varieties that have been grown for centures in North America and have just slowly been replaced with the modern hybrids and genetically modified versions. One of the main reasons for that is the patenting of hybrid and genetically modified (GM) seed. Seeds from vegetables grown from patented seed cannot legally be saved by the grower for the following year. The farmer legally must repurchase these seeds each spring. Natural and heirloom seeds cannot be patented and so, there is no money in selling them. Large seed companies, such as Monsanto, sell only genetically modified and patented seed. The old fashioned heirloom varieties are slowing dissappearing. The gene pool is shrinking and we are losing valuable material. Not necessarily inferior material either!

We really enjoyed the little acorn squash last year, baked with maple syrup, raisins and dried cranberries and I know that hubbard and buttercup both make excellent pies. Some softer skinned buttercup varieties of squash do not keep very long, however, so they need to be cooked and frozen shortly after harvesting. I have read that the delica squash are not good keepers, either, so we will cook and freeze those when they are ready.

I have collected a selection of squash recipes that we have found to be delicious and have made many times. Winter squash and sweet pumpkin are interchangeable in any recipe, since they are the same thing. Pumpkin and squash are both members of the gourd family. No canned pumpkin will ever taste as good as the homegrown vegetable.