Drying Herbs to Savor the Flavor

Reader Contribution by Dede Ryan
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From the first oregano plant I put in the ground two decades ago, I’ve been hooked on growing and using herbs. An herb garden close to the kitchen door enhances the landscape and provides color, texture and taste to summer recipes. A sprig of mint in tea or lemonade livens up drinks. They seem fresher and embrace a summer of hammocks and comic books. Trout stuffed with fresh rosemary and grilled with olive oil and sea salt could replace the hamburger as a cookout staple. Aromatic basil for homemade pesto. Feathery dill to flavor your pickles. Pungent chives for salads and garnish… I could go on and on.

When you love herbs and become spoiled by stepping out to the garden for a leaf of this or a sprig of that, the end of summer looms like a giant rainless cloud on the horizon. How do you save these herbs so you can use them all through the winter?

1. You can pot them up and put them in a sunny window. These are lovely and will satisfy both your love of culinary herbs and your need to poke around in soil.

2. You can preserve your herbs through drying. The fact is, for many dishes, dried herbs are preferable to fresh. Rosemary, for example, can be pretty chewy if the little needles aren’t dried to a nice crisp snap before you use them for grilled rosemary potatoes are rosemary-garlic bread.

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