Not really "bushcrafty" - although it will be when I build a solar dehydrator shortly. Anyways.....

There's two ways to dry - fast and slow. Fast implies a dehydrator, slow means air drying. I've shown both here. For a dehydrator I've shown my electrically powered model. If you would like to see a solar model, I'll do a thread on that too - when I've built it!

Well, to show how to dry herbs, lets see whats fresh

I grow loads of Rosemary. Its greatwith mutton and lamb and I live in high chalk! There's two growths on this plant - 4" of new growth and 18" of 3 year old shrub. If drying in a dehydrator, take only the soft new growth. For air drying take 6-8" including some "woody" stems

Right, next take a look at Sage. I love Sage - its a fresh, clean smelling herb. Great with chicken! Its also an instructive herb as to the taxonomy of growth. For preserving you want those new leaves. See the ones without yellow spots? That's what you want. Pinch them out with your nails.

Now here is an important point. If you look close, you will see tiny side growths at the base of the leaves. If you remove fresh top leaves, these form vigorous side growths. They encourage a strong "bushy" herb.

Both of these "leafy" herbs are suitable for air drying. We'll discuss how to do this in the next post.

Next we'll look at a few aliums. These are members of the onion family. There are lots of these. Garlic, onions, shallots, chives.

Here is my personal favourite though. The Welsh Onion.

Now note the flower head. That needs to be snapped off - flower head put "strength" into growing flowers. We want foliage. So snap them off.

Many have never seen this herb - it grows 18" high, tastes like onion but is like a large chive - cut the top growth and it grows back. Its perennial and comes back each year.

Now one of my loves - Chives

I adore chives - they flavour my omelettes most mornings. Once you plant them they spread and grow. The more you take - the more they grow. BUT you don't get them in the winter. So preserving is key. Here's one of my chive patches.

I have dozens of these patches. When they get too "clumped" I dig them up and divide them.

The aliums need to be fast dried. The leafy herbs can be air or slow dried. Why do herbs matter? Well, for hundreds of years, pepper was priced as one ounce of pepper to one ounce of solid gold. Those people knew what flavour was worth!

So, we've picked herbs for preserving. The old way was to air dry them. Air drying is easy, cheap and needs no specialist kit.

Lets look at Rosemary. Take off all the soft new growth and some old "woody" stems. The new growth is about 4" long on my Rosemary now, so I'm cutting 6-8" lengths

These lengths are gathered together and tied in a bunch. Make your bunches small but plentiful - not large and lazy. You need the air to move through them to dry them. Tie them up in small bunches with garden (jute) string leaving a long "end" with a loop tied into the loose end

Hang your herb bundles in a cool, dry, dark place. I use my pantry and one of my outbuildings - I love the smell of drying herbs!

Now here's how I prepare my dehydrator. First, I cover the base in tinfoil. This is because I have had fruits and jerky "drip" on the base of my dehydrator. A layer of tinfoil prevents this. Now if you do this, note that you must cut a hole for the hot air blower to come through the tin foil - sealing the whole base over would prevent the dehydrator from working.

Next I put the first tray on. Now some of the "allium" herbs are going to be very fine and will fall through the bars of the dehydrator - so we cover the tray with greaseproof paper. Note the hole again to let hot air blow through.

Now the big double handful of chives are chopped into 1/4" lengths onto the greaseproof and spread out evenly.

Then I put the next tray on, trim off the excess paper and I'm ready for the next herb

Next - another layer of greaseproof - and a thick layer of Welsh Onion cut into 1/4" sections

Next we put a layer of Sage on. Now, with your leafy herbs, make sure you remove the "stems". The next layer is Sage. Look at the base of each leaf - the woody stem has been torn off.

Next - the rosemary. Now there's a technique. Hold the top of the stem tightly with your left hand. Loosely inch the stem at the top (the left on the picture) with your right hand and strip all the leaves off by pulling from left to right (top to bottom)

Put another tray on your dehydrator, another layer of greaseproof, and spread out your rosemary leaves

Slap a lid on and turn the dehydrator on.

So, turn your dehydrator on and keep an eye on it - each type of herb dries differently.

Some of these herbs will need to be ground to a powder when dried. I use one of my pestle and mortars to do this. Ideally ceramic works best

After about two hours, the chives are dried. Now I don't grind these, I like them just as they are. I put them in soups and stews as is, or rehydrate for omelettes

After they are fully dried, I tip the dry chives onto a piece of A4 paper folded lengthwise. This helps me pour the dried herb into a storage container

Next to dry out was the Sage. I poured the dry "snappy" leaves into the pestle and mortar

A good grind and rub and we get this.....

Again - we bag and label

Next comes the Welsh Onion. I like this dried and flattened but not powder ground, so I put it in the mortar but just press flat

Finally the Rosemary is dry - again this is is leafy and fibrous so its put into the pestle and mortar

I grind it to a fine powder

Finally, this powder is bagged and labelled - and we have four types of herbs for 10 minutes work

Red