Drying Herbs

I figured after I posted a DIY herb planter that I could follow it up with a tutorial on drying the herbs. I have so many that I can't possibly use them all during the course of the summer, and with winter quickly (too quickly in my opinion) approaching, I hate to see what's left go to waste. So here's my quick and easy tutorial on drying herbs. All you need is a food dehydrator.

Step 1: Plug in the dehydrator and let it warm up while you prep the herbs.

Step 2: Pick your herbs and begin trimming off excess stems and any other parts of the herb that you don't want to dry (like flowers or dead leaves). I pull off the larger stems and leave the smaller ones for this step so that they're easier to handle.

Step 3: Once you've trimmed the herbs you want to dry, place them in a strainer and rinse them off gently.

Step 4: Lay out on a towel to dry off a bit. They don't need to be completely dry before placing in the dehydrator. Then, spread the herbs out evenly within the dehydrator.

Step 5: Every half hour, rotate the trays on the dehydrator so that the herbs dry evenly.

Step 6: Once herbs are crisp and dry, they can be crushed and stored in a container (which you can also DIY here). Be sure to pick out any extra stems.