Have you ever thought of drying fresh basil? Well, let me tell you it is the easiest way I know of to use all of that basil from the garden. I can pinch off a few leaves here and there to make anything Caprese, or throw it in a sauce or whatever, but I honestly do not use it often enough to use up all those wonderfully aromatic leaves. Kind of ironic, considering the name of our blog. We each chose a favorite food to cook with and Julie chose basil. I chose biscuits just to add a little Southern accent, so to speak.
Don’t laugh, but I talk to this plant occasionally. I call her “My Pretty”. Yes, seriously, and then I apologize for not making better use of her bounty. Now, I don’t usually talk to plants–except for my blue hydrangea bushes when I pass by them on the Zero-Turn lawnmower. Speaking of which, do you have a blue hydrangea bush? Have you noticed that as the color fades the blooms actually turn into this beautiful pale green and lavendar color? It’s amazing to me.
So, on to the drying process. I harvested almost all of my basil a couple of days ago, and got all of this:
It actually filled the kitchen sink, and I left some on the plant so that I have fresh basil to use for a while longer. After I let these soak in some cool water, it was time to pinch off the individual leaves. Yes, that took a while and I took several breaks and sat on the couch and visited with various family members who were in and out of the family room.
Preheat your oven to 195 degrees F. Once all of the leaves are pinched off–you do not want any stems in there–place them on cookie sheets with sides. You don’t have to dry them off first, thank goodness! Just kind of distribute them around. You can’t do it wrong. Place the cookie sheets in the oven and bake for about 1 1/2 hours or so. Just check on them during the drying process to see if they are crackly and then they will be done! I couldn’t fit my 2 cookie sheets on the same rack so I put one on one rack and the other just below that. It worked just fine. I actually had one more tray of basil to dry, so I took care of that after the other 2 were done.
Next thing you do is to just put the dried leaves in a gallon plastic bag, seal it, and then just keep squeezing the bag until all of the leaves are the consistency of what you normally buy in the store, or close to that. Repeat the process as needed.
That sinkful of basil reduced to less than a half pint of product. Think about how much fresh product commercial companies have to grow or buy just to get a bottle of herbs!
I had so much fun doing this! And I felt so productive and self-reliant knowing that we had produced something in our garden that I preserved to use over time, without any waste.
Ahhh….
If you want to learn more about preserving or gardening, check out DirtFarmerJay. I learned this process from watching his YouTube video, and am following him for more ideas.
