herbs and spice

This is the first year I've really made an effort to dry and preserve a lot of different herbs.  For weeks this October we've had a clothes line stretched across the length of our apartment holding bunches of herbs as they dry.  Since some herbalists recommend not washing the herbs before drying, I picked plants with as little dirt on them as I could, and then right before I put them into jars I used a blow drier to remove any dried dirt!  It turned out to be a lot of work for as little Thyme as I got out of it, but for other things like sage, rosemary, and mint, we are probably stocked up for the next few years.  I also dried parsley, oregano, lavender, lemon mint, spearmint and peppermint.  Sage is by far my favorite and I loved how my hands (and the house) smelled after pinching off all the leaves.