Drying Basil

Fresh Basil from the Garden

Our Basil is doing awesome right now. I have way more than I can use fresh and the bugs were starting to feast on it, so I thought I better cut a bunch for drying. I love basil. It smells amazing. I love to weed in that spot of my garden because it is just heavenly smelling. I harvested 4 large bunches last week and got to work getting it preserved for future use. 

Even though we were lucky enough to inherit our food dehydrator from Jacob's parents, I think a food dehydrator is a great investment. I use mine all of the time, for tons of stuff. It can save a lot of money in the long run. Drying your own herbs is a great money saver. I also dried tons of parsley this year.

Homegrown Dried Basil

It only takes about 4 or 5 hours to get your basil nice and dry. 

I keep my old spice containers once I empty them, clean them well and fill them up with my own dried herbs. 

Dried Stevia

If you don't have a food dehydrator yet, no worries. You can simply hang your herbs upside down for a few weeks and allow them to dry naturally. That is what I did with this Stevia that is pictured at the right.