Harvesting and drying your own parsley is very simple to do and assures that you will have homegrown parsley all winter long. I use the parsley from my garden to re-fill my dried parsley spice container and I can taste the difference. Here is how to do it.
1. I am not picky in how I harvest my parsley. I simply grab a clump of it and snip it near the base with a sharp pair of garden scissors. The parsley will grow right back and fill in the clump that I just cut.
2. Take the cut parsley and rinse it to make sure that any little insects or dirt/dust is off.
3. Get a large baking sheet and spread the parsley out on it. Try to make sure that the parsley is not piled to high in any one area of the baking sheet as this will slow down the drying process. Alternatively, you can hang clumps of parsley with twine tied around their stems in a dry cool place to dry out.
4. Place your oven on the "warm" setting or at 200 degrees or less. This will dry out the parsley without baking it or burning it. Many people, myself included, like to keep the oven door slightly cracked to let the moisture out. If you let the door cracked make sure to keep kids and pets away from it.
5. Occasionally check the parsley and turn it and spread it out more when needed. It will likely take a couple of hours for the parsley to fully dry out.
6. Once all of the parsley is completely dried, remove the tray from the oven and let cool. You are now ready to crumble the parsley and place it into bags or containers. I crumble the leaves and remove the stems at this point, however, you can remove the stems from each plant before step 3.
About the Author
Steve Gunther is passionate about vegetable gardening. Though only introduced to gardening himself a couple of years ago, he has immersed himself in the gardening community. Steve is currently starting a website dedicated to vegetable gardening http://getready2garden.com/ and a blog: http://getready2garden.blogspot.com/
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