Drying and Storing Herbs from the Garden

By August a healthy herb patch usually gives you far more than you can eat. The good news is that a summer glut needn't go to waste: with a little drying or freezing, that home-grown flavour can carry you right through a grey British winter, when shop-bought herbs are dear and often disappointing.

The trick is matching the method to the herb. Some herbs dry beautifully and keep their scent for months. Others lose almost all their character on a drying rack and are far better frozen. This guide walks you through both, plus when to pick for the strongest flavour and how to store the results so they actually last.

Which herbs dry well, and which freeze better

Get this choice right and everything else falls into place. As a rule of thumb, the tougher and more aromatic the leaf, the better it dries.

Herbs that dry brilliantly are the woody, resinous, sun-loving sorts — rosemary, thyme, sage, oregano, marjoram and bay. These are the classic Mediterranean herbs, and because their flavour sits in robust oils rather than watery leaves, they hold their scent well as they dry and even concentrate it. A jar of your own dried oregano or thyme will outshine anything on a supermarket shelf. If you grow a row of these, drying is the obvious way to preserve the glut.

Herbs that freeze better are the soft, leafy ones with a high water content: basil, coriander, parsley, chives, dill and chervil. Dry these and you're often left with green dust that tastes of hay. Frozen, they keep much more of their fresh, bright flavour — which is exactly what you want from a soft herb. Mint sits in the middle: it dries acceptably for tea, but for cooking it freezes better.

Air-drying herbs in bunches

Air-drying is the oldest method and still the best for woody herbs. It costs nothing, needs no electricity, and the slow pace protects the delicate oils that hold the flavour.

Gather a small handful of stems — no thicker than about 2cm at the base — and tie them loosely with string or an elastic band. Keep bunches small so air moves through the middle; fat bunches trap moisture and can turn mouldy in the centre. Hang them upside down so the oils settle into the leaves.

The spot matters more than you'd think. You want somewhere warm, airy and dark:

• An airing cupboard is ideal in a UK home — warm, dry and out of the light.
• A spare bedroom or loft works if it's dry and gets some air.
• A warm kitchen can do the job, but keep bunches away from steam from the kettle and hob.

Avoid bright windowsills: sunlight bleaches the leaves and burns off the very oils you're trying to keep. Drying usually takes one to three weeks, depending on the herb and how warm the room is. They're ready when the leaves are completely crisp and crumble at a touch — any bend or softness means there's moisture left, and that moisture will spoil them in the jar.

For loose leaves or short sprigs that won't bunch, lay them in a single layer on a cake rack, a clean tea towel or a mesh drying rack, and turn them every couple of days.

Drying herbs in the oven or a dehydrator

When the weather's against you — and a damp British autumn often is — a gentle heat speeds things up. The golden rule is low and slow: too much heat scorches the oils and you lose the flavour you're working to save.

In the oven, spread the leaves in a single layer on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Set the oven to its lowest setting (ideally below 50°C; many ovens won't go that low, so use the very lowest mark and prop the door open a little to let moisture escape). Check every 20–30 minutes and turn the leaves. Most herbs are done in one to three hours. Watch them — they go from crisp to scorched quickly, and browning means burnt flavour.

A dehydrator is the gentlest and most reliable option if you preserve a lot. Set it to around 35–40°C and leave it to run; you'll get evenly dried herbs with little fuss and no risk of catching. It's an investment rather than a necessity, but worth it if you dry herbs every year or grow plenty of the woody sorts.

Microwaving works in a pinch for small amounts (30-second bursts on a sheet of kitchen roll), but it's easy to overdo and you can only manage a little at a time.

Freezing soft herbs

Freezing is the kindest method for the soft herbs that hate drying. There are three easy approaches.

Chopped in ice-cube trays. This is the classic. Chop your basil, parsley, coriander or chives, pack the chopped herb into the holes of an ice-cube tray — about two-thirds full — then top up with water and freeze. Once solid, pop the cubes into a labelled freezer bag. Drop a cube straight into soups, stews, sauces or a curry. Water-frozen cubes suit anything that's going to simmer.

Frozen in oil. For herbs you'll fry or stir into a finished dish, top the trays with olive oil instead of water. The oil coats the leaves, locks out air and keeps the colour and flavour better than water for the likes of basil and oregano. Tip the cube straight into a hot pan.

Herb butter. Soft herbs also freeze beautifully in butter. Mash chopped parsley, chives or a little garlic into softened butter, roll it into a log in greaseproof paper or cling film, and freeze. Slice off discs as you need them for fish, steak, jacket potatoes or to finish a sauce — a small luxury that keeps for months.

You can also freeze whole sprigs loose on a tray, then bag them, though they'll wilt on thawing — fine for cooking, not for garnish.

Storing dried herbs so they keep

Drying is only half the job; poor storage undoes good drying within weeks. Three enemies degrade dried herbs — light, heat and air — so good storage simply shuts all three out.

Once the leaves are completely crisp, strip them from the stems and store them as whole as possible. Crumble or grind them only when you cook: the more intact the leaf, the longer the oils survive. Pack them into small airtight jars — clean jam jars with good lids, or proper spice jars — and seal them tight.

Then keep those jars somewhere cool, dark and dry: a cupboard or a drawer, never on an open rack above the cooker or in a sunny spot, however tempting it looks. Heat and light are exactly what fade colour and flavour. Always label each jar with the herb and the date.

Used this way, home-dried herbs hold good flavour for about a year, which neatly takes you to the next harvest. When they smell of little more than dust, it's time to compost them and start again — and your old compost heap is the perfect home for them.

When to harvest for the best flavour

The flavour you store can only ever be as good as the leaf you picked, so timing matters.

Harvest just before the plant flowers. This is when the leaves hold the most oil and the strongest taste. Once a herb runs up to flower its energy shifts to the bloom and the leaves turn weaker and sometimes bitter — the same thing that happens when coriander bolts in a hot spell. Picking little and often through summer also keeps plants bushy and productive.

Pick on a dry morning, after the dew has lifted but before the midday sun. Leaves picked dry need far less drying time and are much less likely to go mouldy. Avoid harvesting after rain or in the evening damp. Snip clean, healthy growth and leave anything yellowing or nibbled behind. There's no need to wash unless the leaves are gritty — and if you do, dry them thoroughly first, as surface water is the enemy of good drying.

For more on growing, harvesting and overwintering the woody herbs that dry so well, see the Mediterranean herbs guide. If you're growing herbs on a kitchen ledge, our windowsill growing notes and the wider herbs hub cover the rest of the year-round cycle — so there's always something fresh to pick, and a jar or a freezer bag put by for winter.