How to Dry Herbs: A Simple Guide for Preserving the Herb Harvest

Drying herbs is one of the easiest and most satisfying ways to preserve an herb’s aroma, flavor, and potency. But doing it properly and consistently is key to maintaining quality and reducing spoilage. Whether you're growing your own or buying fresh bundles from a local farm, learning how to dry herbs for tea is a great way to extend the season and to connect with your herbs in a new way. While fresh herbs can be exciting to work with, life gets busy, the seasons come and go and time is not always on our side to get to all of our herbal medicine projects when there are summer camps, barbecues, gardens and farms to tend as well as everything else. Drying herbs gives us time to come back to our herbs and extends the useful life and potency of our fresh harvests.

At La Ferme À Ciel Sur Mer, we predominantly sell dried herbs though we also have a thriving and growing fresh herb market as well. We grow, harvest, dry and ship direct to our customers for maximum freshness and vibrancy of our herbs. It’s hard for our competitors overseas and even distributors to come close to our quality given the number of intermediaries and time on shelves that results from long supply chains. We also pay special attention to our harvesting and drying process to ensure high quality.  We’ll describe the latter below.

Fragrant and vibrant herbs that match or nearly match the color of their fresh counterpart is our goal in drying. When the right process is followed this is possible and an expected outcome.  

Why Dry Your Own Herbs?

Fresh herbs are lovely, but drying them lets you enjoy their benefits year-round. When properly dried and stored, herbs can retain their color, scent, and medicinal properties for months or even years. (We tend to give our herbs up to a two year life with roots sometimes lasting considerably longer and flowers and aromatics sometimes maintaining their highest quality for a significantly shorter period of time.)

Drying also gives you more control over quality. Instead of relying on store-bought teas that may be old or faded, you can harvest and dry at peak potency.

Best Herbs for Drying into Tea

Most herbs used in tea are ideal for drying. Some of our favorite tea herbs that dry well include:

• Chamomile: Calming and digestive
  
  

• Lemon Balm: Uplifting and antiviral
  
  

• Tulsi (Holy Basil): Adaptogenic and aromatic
  
  

• Peppermint: Cooling and digestive
  
  

• Nettles: Mineral-rich and nourishing
  
  

• Calendula: Skin-supportive and anti-inflammatory
  
  

Best Way to Dry Herbs

There are several methods to dry herbs, but our favorite is also the simplest: air-drying.

Step-by-Step: Air-Drying Herbs

1. Harvest at the Right Time
   
   

• Pick herbs in the morning after dew has dried but before the sun is strong. The goal is to get the crop dry as quickly as possible after harvesting and wet leaves from dew slow down the drying process, requiring more energy (heat or air) to dry.

• Head into the fields before the day is too hot and preferably on a dry, cool morning. Hot plants are under stress and while all crops will wilt after harvesting it is good to get the humid heat of summer off the crop quickly.  That is easier done if the plants are not too sweltering to begin with. 

• Harvest before flowering for leafy herbs (like lemon balm) and in full bloom for flowers (like chamomile). For most leafy herbs you want to harvest before the flower even starts though we like to let our tulsi start to flower and we harvest our hyssop in full bloom. Anise hyssop we also harvest at peak flower before any seeds start to form.
  
  

Color is preserved and leaves kept as whole as possible in removal of stems.

1. Bundle or Lay Flat
   
   

• If you are harvesting a small amount of herbs from your garden tying small bundles of stems together (about one inch thick) and hanging upside down in a cool dry dark room can work great. Adding some forced air like a fan or a cross breeze is also a big plus

• On our farm, we dry on racks, with plants stacked up to two inches thick on to 3 foot by 8 foot racks with a food grade screen (similar to mosquito screen for a screen door). We then have many fans blowing air to whisk any moisture off the plants. Depending on the plant and the weather outside (rain will undoubtedly increase the time needed to dry), our herbs sit for 1-3 days until they are fully dry.

• For our large harvests we have constructed a large open-topped container sixteen feet long and 8 feet wide and we gently heat to 110 F along with forced air to dry our large batches. The low heat and forced air helps get an even drying throughout even with a significantly thicker layer of herbs.
  
  

1. Wait
   
   

• Herbs are typically dry within one to three days with this method but it doesn’t hurt to let them sit longer if you have the space. Once we have achieved our desired moisture level, we will pack away the herbs until we are ready to garble.
  
  

2. Check the Herbs
   
   

• Even after packing the herbs away dry we will check on the herbs for several weeks afterwards, especially for our flowers like calendula.  We will reach into the bag and see if there is any moisture detected. If there is we will pour the herbs back onto the racks and dry some more.
  
  

1. Remove Leaves and Store
   
   

• If we have time after drying we will garble the herbs right away. Otherwise we will set aside and come back to garble. Garbling is the process of removing the main stem. We use #4 and #2 screens on food-grade material to remove the stems or you can remove the primary stem by hand if you are only drying small quantities.

• After garbling store. For information on storing read our post here.

This is one of our garblinb racks where we are specifically sifting out the fines. We have several versions for different purposes.  This one has an electric vibrator on it to shake out the very small particles, often dirt or sand, from the material.

Tips for Preserving Quality

• Don’t rush: Avoid dehydrators unless you can control the temperature (ideally below 95°F / 35°C).

• Label your jars: Include the date and herb name.

• Use within 6–12 months for best potency.

• Keep out of the sun and light! Sunlight dulls the color of your dried herbs in no time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use a dehydrator to dry herbs for tea?
Yes, but keep the temperature low (under 95°F) to preserve flavor and aroma. The lower the temperature the better so long as it is warm enough to remove enough humidity.

How do I know when herbs are fully dry?
They should crumble easily and feel papery to the touch.

Do dried herbs lose potency?
Over time, yes. That’s why it’s best to dry in small batches each year.

Can I dry herbs in the sun?
It’s not recommended. Direct sunlight degrades color and medicinal compounds.

If you’re looking for dried herbs of high quality grown on our small farm, check out our shop! We’ll ship directly to you. 

Interested in knowing more about what's going on on the farm? Our occasional emails bring you stories from the field, new herbs for sale, and herbal insights.
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