When fall comes as well as the end of the summer vegetable and herb growing season, you can’t help but get a feeling of loss. The sun sets early, and nights grow cooler. Once the leaves start to change color, every gardener knows that it’s time to say goodbye to their crops. Green tomatoes get picked and pickled; beans get harvested, corn is picked, and cornstalks are pulled up and set aside until Halloween, when they will be arranged on the front porch with pumpkins and other decorations.
Microwave Herb Drying
Late summer and early fall is the perfect time to preserve summer herbs, dried in your microwave oven. When herbs dry in a microwave, the essential oils of the herbs are absorbed and stored in the leaves that result from the drying process.
Just as dried tomatoes, dried grapes (raisins) and dried plums (prunes) have a more concentrated flavor than the fresh fruits, dried herbs are many times more potent than fresh herbs. If you harvest fresh herbs from your herb garden at the end of the summer growing season and use microwave herb drying to preserve them, you can preserve enough concentrated herbs to meet your cooking needs for the entire winter.
How to Practice Microwave Herb Drying
Microwave herb drying starts with the harvest process. Herb garden plants that are going to be dried should be harvested before they flower. When any plant flowers, it concentrates its energy into creating a flower, robbing the leaves of the essence of the plant. By harvesting the herbs before the flower starts to form, you collect the essential oils while they are still in the leaves of the plant.
Always cut herbs in the morning, before the heat of the day begins to radiate, and use sharp clippers or shears. Cut stems low on the plant. To remove the loose dirt or bugs, you should gently shake the leaves. Taking just a few stems of the herb at a time, wrap a small bundle of herbs in a kitchen towel and place it in the microwave oven. Put a glass measuring cup full of water in the microwave to protect the towel and herbs from burning.
Heat the herbs on high for at least 30 seconds. You can remove the herbs from the oven once the timer goes off. Make sure that you do not unwrap the towel unless it has cooled completely. Once you have removed the dried leaves from the stems, store them in a glass jar or plastic container them have them placed in a cool, dark place. Dried herbs tend to look alike, so be sure to mark the container with the name of the herb inside.
