Harvesting Is In High Gear!

Harvesting is is high gear this time of year and I am right in the middle of it! I have canned every day (except Sunday) for the last two weeks!  Mostly I have canned green beans and apple juice. I have also dehydrated quite a bit of summer squash. The tomatoes are starting to ripen now as well but I don't have enough to make sauce (yet!)  

However, I have been preparing to make sauce. Part of that preparation is to harvest and dry the Italian herbs that truly makes the sauce special. I have done a lot of that the past two weeks as well. While I have a dehydrator, I don't use it for herbs. I do like drying herbs in the microwave, but I don't have one (well, I don't have a working microwave - and haven't for over two years).

So, instead of using electricity to dry herbs, I do it the old fashioned way! I gather the herbs and dry them in a brown paper bag.

In this picture I have thyme, oregano, sage. I also harvested basil but it isn't in the picture.

The first thing I do is tie the herbs in bunches.

Then put them in the paper bag. Sometimes I just staple them to the bag and sometimes I will tie them to the bag. If I get too many bags, I like to tie them so I can hang them up, out of the way. In this picture, I used a staple.  

They should not take more than a few weeks to dry. I fully expect they will be dry when I have enough tomatoes for sauce. They do make the house smell wonderful!