Drying Herbs

Many of our herbs are starting to flower. I wanted to start drying bunches so we can use them all winter long.  Today I harvested a few different types: spicy globe basil, purple shisho, greek oregano, summer savory and some of our hopi red dye amaranth that was knocked over by our gourds!  First I washed all the leaves as best as I could (except for the amaranth, it’s too fragile) and let them dry off.

For hardier herbs like oregano, savory, rosemary, etc you can simply air dry them out of direct sunlight.  Just gather them in bunches from the stems, tie together and hang.  I always have lots of dust, dirt and animal hair in my house so I prefer to be safe and put a brown paper bag around the herb bunches.  I took some scrap fabric strips and tied the herb bunches tightly together. 

 

Then I placed the herbs in brown paper bags, cut a small hole in the bag and inserted the fabric strips through the hole. 

I tied the strips tightly around the outside of the bag, and tied an additional loop with the excess fabric so I could hang the bag. 

Worked out pretty well!  I hung them under a shelf that doesn’t get much sun.

For herbs with delicate, soft leaves like basils or mints you have to dry them quickly.  So you can use a dehydrator, which I do not have, or your oven.  I just spread my basil and shisho out on a cookie sheet, turned my oven to the lowest setting, and checked on the herbs frequently, flipping them over here and there.  It took about 3 hours until they were completely dried.  Then I pulled the leaves off the stems and stored them in air tight containers out of sunlight.

Lazy Sunday Ciabatta Bread

I love Sundays because I’m always off work and don’t usually have much to do other than create things.  I knew I would be spending most of today sewing so I decided to make a loaf of ciabatta bread in between projects.  This type of bread takes all day, that’s why a lazy Sunday is the perfect day for it.  I used a recipe from the book 200 Bread Recipes as my base and added lots of fresh herbs.   This book is made for bread machines, so I’ve improvised a little to do it by hand.   

First you make a starter by combining:

⅔ cup warm water

⅔ flour

¼ tsp sugar

½ tsp yeast

Mix it together very well.  For the first hour or two mix up the starter vigourously every 10-15 minutes, getting it bubbly and full of air.  Then let it sit covered for 4 hours or more (you can also make the starter the night before). 

Next step is to add:

1 cup water

2 tbsp olive oil

1 ½ tsp salt

2 ⅓ cup flour

1 ½ tsp sugar

1 tsp yeast

Stir it very well getting lots of air into the dough again.

Stir again in 15 minutes, then wait another 15 minutes and add:

½ cup fresh herbs (I used oregano, basil, thyme and summer savory)

4 cloves of garlic

Continue coming back to stir every 10-15 minutes for the next 1 hour.

Grease and flour a baking sheet then drop the dough on a well floured surface.  Divide into two loaves and stretch them out to about 11 inches.  Put the loaves on the baking sheet and let them sit for another 30 minutes uncovered in a warm area until they double in size.

Cook at 425° F for 20 minutes or until they sound hollow inside when you tap them.  Let cool and enjoy! 

This is the best bread I’ve ever made and although it takes all day it’s totally worth it.  I’ve brought it to several family dinners and parties and everyone comments on how awesome it is!  So when you have a day to relax just drink some wine, work on some projects and make amazing bread!