Preservation Tips and Tricks – Drying

In this final installment of Preservation Tips and Tricks, we’ll talk about one of the oldest and most traditional forms of preservation: hanging stuff up to dry!

It’s as easy as suspending the produce somewhere dark and dry (don’t use your basement!) and letting the air do the work for you. I find this method works really well with herbs – I dry mint, lavender, and rosemary to use throughout the winter.

Dried herbs are great for making your own herbal teas. Some also work well at repelling mosquitoes – just throw them in the campfire and the smoke helps to keep the bugs away. I’ve used dried lavender in scones a few times and thought it was fantastic.

I’ve tried drying apples instead of dehydrating them and found that fruit flies got to be too much of an issue. This year, I’m growing corn in my garden and I know that requires some drying time as well before you grind it up into cornmeal. We’ll see how that goes.

Thanks for following along! Are there any other preservation methods that you’ve tried or would like to hear more about?