Fresh Fair Essence

I will be demonstrating this coming week at The Great Allentown Fair for the fifth year in a row. To mark that special anniversary, I thought I would focus on herbs for a sort of fresh fair essence demonstration. As you Dear Readers know, I struggle with my garden. The only thing that seems to grow happily are herbs and stuff the birds poop (I mean plant) so I thought I would share with my demo attendees what to do with what they got.

What I got right now is shown above- parsley sage, oregano, chive, lemon thyme, Greek basil, various edible flowers and mint. What I also got is a yard sale dehydrator. Put the two together and what do you got? Yup. Dried herbs! Usually I just air dry herbs but I’m experimenting... Dehydrators are kinda boring but they are useful. It’s been a bit cooler here too so it’s been running, a lot!

All I did was harvest, wash and tie the herbs in bundles (this makes for a little longer dry time but looks prettier). Next, I layered the herbs on the dehydrator tray, grouping the ones together based on how long they take to dry (I used the machine’s reference book), adjusted the heat, plugged the thing in and started sipping mai tais. Below is how they look. The chives yellowed but the others look nice. They will go in labeled bags and used as needed.

I also like to tie assorted herbs together in bundles, dry them, bag and label them and then toss the bundles in soups or sauces and such all winter. I will do that soon as fall is approaching.