Drying your Wild Harvest
Drying herbs was the first herbal skill I learned and the most practical craft I’ve mastered. Dried herbs are so useful for both medicinal and magickal purposes, even more versatile than fresh in my opinion. Everything from smoke cleansing, tea, salves, oil infusions, poultices, elemental magick, folk remedies, kitchen witchery, and so much more make use of this witchy technique.
You might be asking yourself, why should I dry my own? My main reasons for harvesting and tending my own is to insure a few critical cornerstones of my own practice. First, I can make sure that the plants I’m using are fresh and disease free, and preserve them to the standard that I find ideal, avoiding mold and contamination. Large drying facilities often have mixed products and it also makes sure that I can have pure herbals for my craft unmixed with other plants or potential allergens like tree nuts and legumes. Second, I follow a path of most ethical practice, genuinely seeking to honor the plant spirit I’m tapping into, as well as ensuring that I do not over harvest to preserve crops of the future. This falls into what I spoke about last week about the importance of high-principled gathering. Lastly, because most store bought dried herbals are gathered without the intent for magic. When gathering and binding your own plants you can instill purpose in the green practice, confer with your Green Allies, and infuse the plants with your innate power.
A couple tips to get started:
For the strongest flavor harvest before flowering
Leaves contain the highest concentration of oils
Early morning is the best time to harvest
Rinse you herbs and gently pat dry before binding
For the strongest flavor harvest before flowering
Leaves contain the highest concentration of oils
Early morning is the best time to harvest
Rinse you herbs and gently pat dry before binding
Also I like to use colored floss, thin enough to work with, but vibrant for color magick and intentional casting. If I’m drying for tea and cooking I always make sure to use dye-free floss and usually clean, rinse, and dry before use to avoid consuming toxins.
If you are harvesting flowers they respond best to the first method of drying we will cover, traditional tying and hanging. Air-drying is the oldest form of herbal preservation and is very simple to start practicing even with store bought cut plants. Start with 5-10 sprigs of the herb and bind them with a rubber band or string, the fewer stems you use the faster they will dry. When using more herbs for a smoke cleansing bundle or to preserve a large harvest, bind tightly down the length of the stems to maintain the integrity of the leaves as far as you can manage. From here you can do one of a few things; hang the bundles in a warm well ventilated room out of direct sunlight, or hang them inside a brown paper bag with punctured holes. A bag can help keep in oils dispersing if you have a drafty or sunny drying space. In just a few days to a week your herbs will be crunchy and dry depending on how thick your herbal bundle is.
The second method to use is in an oven or dehydrator. You’ll want to set your machine to 180 degrees F or less and be available to monitor the herbs for 2-4 hours. Place the herbs out flat on a cookie sheet or drying rack no thicker than one inch thick. This is much less useful for large bunches and should be used for loose herbs as the tightly bound bigger bundles can keep pockets of moisture deep within. You will know they are done when the leaves are crisp and can easily crumble. For both this and the more traditional style you’ll want to put your herbs in a storage container after they have dried to keep contamination out of your product and keep the strength of flavor and potency.
The last approach I take is through the freezer. I find this more effective for woodier herbals like lovage, basil, mints, rosemary, and plantain. For this remove all the leaves and place in a freezer bag with all the air removed, or flat sandwiched in a paper towel and then rolled up and secured with a rubber band or string. You can also make a paste of the plant with a little water in a food processor, and either add to ice cube trays to freeze and then bag or put directly into a plastic bag and let freeze in a thin sheet to break pieces off as needed.
Green Blessings! -Sea
