RE: [gardeners] Putting it by

Seyfried,Alice (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 29 Jun 1998 14:02:26 -0400 

On the topic of drying herbs... Have you ever just put them in the oven
to dry?  I am planning on drying a whole heap of oregano and purple
basil this year to give as Christmas gifts (thanks, George - it was you
last year that gave me this idea), but I don't have a dehydrator. I was
thinking I could just lay them on a cookie sheet, turn the oven (gas) on
as low as it will go and leave them over night.  Is that a bad idea?  I
want to make sure they retain as much flavor as possible (of course).

Also, have you ever dried tomatos?  I've got 6 yellow pear tomato plants
that are just starting to bloom and I was wondering if I could dry them,
too.  I've frozen roma tomatos in the past, but this is the first year
I've grown the yellow pear, and I'd like to try something different.

Thanks,
Alice in London, Ohio (zone 5b) where it looks like it's going to storm
again tonite. 
seyfried@oclc.org

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	George Shirley [SMTP:gshirley@iamerica.net]
> Sent:	Monday, June 29, 1998 7:27 AM
> To:	gardeners@globalgarden.com
> Subject:	Re: [gardeners] Putting it by
> 
> At 06:30 AM 6/29/98 -0600, you wrote:
> >At 07:48 PM 6/28/98, you wrote:
> >>Picked a bunch of basil again today, both purple and green. Put the
> purple
> >>in the dehydrator and it should be dry by 9 pm.
> ><snip>
> >>
> >George, what kind of dehydrator do you have?  I bought one of those
> little
> >round things and it takes days to dry herbs.  I have a homemade
> dehydrator
> >(combo sulfuring box and dehydrator that I can roll around) that
> dries
> >things a lot faster than that little thing. 
> 
> I've got an American Harvester Snackmaster Jr. No thermostat but I
> prefer
> it over the higher priced one with the thermostat. I can judge to
> within 10
> minutes when my stuff will be dried just right. Any you buy should
> have a
> fan in them. I've heard lots of bad stuff about those brands without a
> fan,
> example: takes forever to dry anything.
>  
> George