<< Back Battening Down the Hatches IV: Dried Herbs

Okay. I know we assured you previously that the hatches were officially battened, that you could rest easy, tucked in for the winter. But, as Derrida suggests, battening is always deferred. There're always some loose end to tie up.

Remember those herbs from out garden that we hung up to dry? Well, you eventually have to do something with those. It's pretty easy, actually. Once they're dry, take them down, untie them, and try to get the leaves off of the stems. This is pretty easy (if not tedious) with thyme and oregano, and slightly more arduous with sage. Additionally, since thyme and oregano have relatively small leaves, you don't really have to crumble them any more than the what occurs in the stem removal process. They can go directly into spice jars. The sage will need to be crumbled by hand, or even ground lightly with a mortar and pestle. If you're wondering about the parsley...instead of drying, ours withered and turned brown. Last year, we potted it and it left it through the winter in our three-season room. So, like the rosemary, you may decide against drying the ol' parsels and just keeping it fresh on hand.

Since we recently got some new spice containers, we had some of our old ones handy for the dried herbs. Be sure to label them with a date.