TO DRY HERBS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20405, 6 November 1929, Page 17

TO DRY HERBS.

The scent, of leaves is often more lasting than that of flowers, and the old herbalist was right in thinking no blossoms as fragrant as the perfume of bruised wild thyme, mint or rosemary. Bush lovers' in Australia know the clean aromatic scent of crushed gum leaves, and the housewife of the twentieth century who flavours her cookery with dried herbs is following a very ancient custom of imparting scent and savour. Herbs for drying should be plucked when just about to flower, as the greatest fragrance is in the young tips (lavender blossoms must be picked before the flowers open), and it is well worth ihe trouble to grow and dry the herbs required for family use, as they surpass the commercial product in every way. The following are the directions given by Eleanor Sinclair Rohdo in "A Garden of Herbs." "No herbs," she writes, "should ever be dried in the sunlight, as this extracts so much of their virtue. They should always be picked when the dew has well dried off them, but before the sun is at its hottest. They should be hung in small bunches in a dark, dry place, with paper over them to keep off the dust, and as soon as they are perfectly dry they should be powdered and put into airtight tins, or, preferably, into well.corked bottles. If in tho lalter they should be kept in the dark. One of the easiest ways of drying herbs, if you have no proper drying shed, is to hang tlieni in bunches in a cool oven. Flowers for pot-pourri should be dried and spread out on wire sieves, so that the air can circulate all round them, below ns well as above. If necessary cover with butter muslin, to prevent the petals blowing about." (Miss Rohde's about wire racks is well worth remembering, as the petals and leaves dry so evenly.)