Drying Herbs in Still*Life~Style

One of the great things my husband did for me this season was build me a wonderful raised herb garden. I was planning on planting my herbs in railing boxes, but he thought they would be too high and hard to reach. So he took this on as a bit of a project, and I ended up with a 3' by 4" garden situated at the end of our deck, where I can easily access it from the kitchen or yard.



I really love it, always having fresh herbs to cook with and use in photos is so awesome. For me, there is something very relaxing about gardening as long as it does not become too time consuming. Tending this little herb farm is just enough to enjoy and maintain on my schedule.



Bonus: storage space underneath to tuck in some of my collection of vintage rusty garden junque!




It's pretty amazing how much one plant can yield. My oregano was growing much faster than I was using it, so this morning I harvested a huge batch to dry. There was some good info here to get me started. Some I'm drying on cooling racks in the oven, using the heat from the pilot light of the gas range.



The rest I bundled to hang and dry.







I had found these great bentwood hangers (have a thing for old hangers, too) at a sale a few months back and recently thought maybe I should put them into the
Etsy shop, but they weren't quite food related like my other items...



until now! They work out great for herb drying, just tie the bundles on, and move the hanger wherever you need to throughout the drying process.
Of course, I have been trying to cook with the herbs while fresh as much as possible, and scanning my favorite food blogs for great recipes. What have you been doing with your bumper crop of herbs?

Paula