Drying Herbs & Spices

Gather the herbs you want to use. This is what grows here that I use: plantain, dandelion leaves, horsetail, sow thistle leaves, yarrow leaves, calendula whole blossoms, lavender, rose, spruce, lemongrass, rosemary, peppermint, clover (white and red flowers and leaves), cayenne , goldenrod, fireweed, stinging nettle, thyme, oregano, ground ivy (also called creeping Charlie), usnea lichen, chamomile. I also use feverfew and purslane that I grow myself. 

You don't need to use all of these herbs. Try whatever mix you have handy and can forage. All of these have healing, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial healing properties. I use a lot of plantain.  It's everywhere! The usnea is an important anti fungal herb, as well. You might, possibly, want to do an allergy test with some of these, just to make sure you aren't making a salve that you react to. If you are unsure of something growing, google it or take a close clear photo and ask online what it is. I enjoy gathering, drying and working with herbs. I like handling them, smelling them, sitting outside in the sun picking them. To me, it's fun. It's relaxing and my house smells wonderful with all these herbs drying everywhere. I try to leave long stems on the leaves or cut whole small branches so I can gather at the ends and hang somewhere. 

I dry small pieces in a single layer on a paper towel, turning every few days. You can dry them quickly in your car on a sunny day and your car will smell marvelous. You can dry them in the oven on a very low setting. Some people dry them in the microwave, however, they need to be half dry before microwaving or it will spark and start a fire. I guess some strong herbs have too much iron and mineral content for the microwave. (Believe me, it can happen, I know...) I think it's best to just leave them out of the microwave altogether. I usually use tin ties to tie bunches to a clothes hanger and hang it up. (No, I didn't put tin ties in the microwave, lol.) 

Stick a small piece of paper on the hanger with the herbs to label then. Sometimes it's hard to tell what they are when they are dry. I have hung herbs from hooks on the wall, on the ceiling fan, from curtain rods, from wires strung under the porch roof, from lamps, shelves, just about everywhere I could hang them. If you have herbs hanging, you will need to tighten the ties every day. As they dry, they shrink and fall out. If your floor is clean and you don't have cats and dogs that like to eat everything green, you can just tie them up again, but I think it's probably best to just tighten them daily at first. Also hang them high enough that your dogs and cats can't reach them. My cats LOVE horsetail. You can also tie them in paper bags, to keep out dust and insects and the bags will catch them as they shrink and fall out of the ties. 

If you can score large screens, you can make screen shelves on the deck with bricks and screens. That has worked well for me in the past but squirrels and mice can get them. You can also dry them on, and wrap them in, curtain sheers instead of screens and paper bags. They catch even the tiniest pieces. Good for drying seeds, as well. 

I usually give herbs about two weeks to dry very, very well and that's important. Everything that goes into the salve has to be completely dry, no moisture at all! If there's one drop of moisture in it, it will grow mold and go bad quickly. When the herbs are very dry, I crumble and grind in my spice grinder, if they need it. Some, like usnea. are so fine that they don't need it. I then put them in labelled glass jars. Any clean and very dry glass jar will do. Pickle jars work well. They will keep dry like this for years, until you are ready to make the salve and easy to use for cooking.

You can spend your summer collecting and processing the herbs & spices, then make the salve in the winter.

Making Salve with Dried Herbs

The first step is to make sure every single ingredient has been fully dried. I then grind them with a coffee grinder and store in glass jars for future uese. 

To make the salve: infuse the oil with the dried herbs. You can use any kind of oil that comes from plants or animals, (olive, almond, sunflower, canola, coconut - although coconut oil melts at 72 degrees F - warm room temperature, so I don't use it for salve. It would be constantly melted unless you kept it in the fridge.) - no mineral oil or petroleum products. 

There are several ways to do this. The easiest way is to fill a glass jar about one third full with dried, ground herbs. Fill to the top of the jar with oil leaving some air space. Stir it well, use a tight lid, put in a warm place like a south facing windowsill, on top of your fridge, etc. and shake whenever you walk by. Open daily to stir and let some air in. Leave this for 4-6 weeks. If you want to do this faster you can use a slow cooker. Use jars that fit in your slow cooker with the lid on. Set the jars with lids lightly on just to keep out condensation, full of herbs and oil, into the slow cooker and fill it full with hot water to about half the height of the jars . Cook on low for minimum 5 days, 7 days is better. Take the jars out every day, set on a towel, remove lid and stir. Put the lid back on and return them to the slow cooker. When all jars are out of the slow cooker, add more very hot water so it doesn't dry out. You will have to keep adding water to the slow cooker as the days go by. Just make sure the jars are out of it and it's hot water you are adding. You can turn it off over night so it's not cooking when no one is there to keep an eye on it. Mine goes off and on during the days when I'm cooking herbs. Be very careful handling the jars. They are HOT. Don't handle them with your bare hands. For faster infusion, you can use a steamer. I use the slow cooker method most of the time. When the 5-7 days are finished, strain the herbs. Toss out the cooked herbs. There is nothing left in them of any use. I use a little metal strainer with a coffee filter in it, set on a bowl or a wide mouth jar, to strain the oil. When you have clear, strained, herb infused oil, it's time to add the wax. 

 

You can use beeswax, soy wax or paraffin. All work equally well. I prefer to use soya wax for this purpose. Beeswax is becoming a non sustainable resource. I save my beeswax for lip balm. After straining the oil, you will need to reheat it to melt the wax. You can set the jars in a double boiler on the stove to heat. If the wax is just not melting, the oil is not hot enough. Do not leave oil heating unattended and do not over heat it. It should be just hot enough to melt the wax within a few minutes of stirring. When the oil is hot enough, add the wax and stir until dissolved. I use 100g of wax added to 400g of oil for salve. You can adjust this for your own preferences. Less wax makes a softer, oilier salve. When the wax is fully melted in the oil, pour it into your clean permanent containers and put the lid on. If the salve is grainy, the was hasn't fully melted. You can use a stick blender with it's hot and thin to insure a smooth finish, but if your are sure the wax is fully melted, this is not necessary. 

I have a slow cooker that I use only for infusing herbal oil. The oils leak out slightly and the slow cooker will get a coating of cooked oil with little use. I wouldn't use it for food. You can often pick up an old slow cooker at the thrift store. I have three, one for herbal oil infusion, one for making soap and one for food. 

Leave them sitting still for a few hours as the salve cools and hardens.