How to air dry basil

 

I like growing my own herbs. I like growing my own vegetables as well, but my green thumb, is still not the shade of green, that I would like. I am still very much a newbie, when it comes to growing vegetables in my yard. Now, with this basil plant, I had a bit of luck, by placing it on my kitchen windowsill, and watering it just a bit, everyday. It grew, before my eyes, and I was always trimming it down, before it grew again!

How to air dry basil

I was using fresh basil in my scrambled eggs, and in my salads, and I wanted to dry my own, and it was pretty easy. It just took a bit of time, but I was in no rush for this experiment. I let my basil plant grow again, and as you can see below, this plant got very big.

How to air dry basil

 

I cut off a lot of bunches, and I cut them stem by stem, right above a set of leaves.

How to air dry basil

 

 

Once you have all of your leaves set out, you can rinse them off at this point, and dry them in a tea towel, before the next step.

How to air dry basil

I them tied a piece of kitchen twine at the end of the bunch. You want to make it pretty tight, because once the basil dries out, they will become thinner at the stem as well, and you don’t want them falling through the knot, so make it tight!

How to air dry basil

Hang them somewhere high, and out of direct sunlight. I hung them on my hanging pot rack, and it worked really well. I left it to dry, for about 4 weeks, until they were dry and brittle.

How to air dry basil

Then i just crumbled the leaves in a clean, and dry bowl, and placed them in an airtight container, and into my pantry. I have used them in my homemade Bolognese Sauce, Italian Herb Baked Chicken, Roasted Chicken, Baked Meatballs, and more. This is super simple, and it felt so good to harvest my own food, from my kitchen garden. Try it and you will see!

 

How to air dry basil

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