We like to dry herbs at our house. We dry a lot to use for teas and then some for cooking as well. Drying a lot of herbs takes a fair amount of space and we hadn't figured out where that we be yet here so we put our heads together and came up with a plan.
There was space on the wall above the utility sink in our laundry room and I decided that would work well for drying herbs. I am using birch bark for decorating in that room and so I decided to make a rack from some birch branches that I was able to find in our yard.
First I measure the wall to figure out the size to make it and then I started cutting the sticks to the right size. Then I laid them out like a ladder.
To make things very easy I then just tied them together with twine.
The next step was to hang it on the wall. It definitely is rustic. Thankfully I like rustic! :-)
Mara was meanwhile busily gathering herbs. We were able to fill it up right away.
I made a bunch of birch bark labels for all the herbs since after they are dried in can sometimes be a little more challenging to tell them apart.
The herb rack made the whole room smell delightful! That was a pleasant change as that room can be one of the least good smelling places in our house.
Do you dry herbs? What method do you use to dry them? I would love to hear about your favorite herbs or ways you like to use birch in decorating or any other thoughts you might have!
3 comments:
You are so creative. What a really nice idea. I'd love to have my son make me one of these. We have a lot of birch around our house too. I have only dried herbs once and that was in paper bags. I just placed the herbs in the bags and left the top open and put them in a dark closet. I like your idea better. :) Thanks for sharing.
That's a great idea. I have only ever dried herbs in a dehydrator. It took a lot of time.
I have two questions for you. Do you grow berries on your property of any kind (or did you at your old house) and do you compost? If so, did/do any of these cause issues with bears? We just bought a house with a very large town lot after not having a house or yard for a few years. We want to garden again but the lot does back onto bush and there are definitely black bears around. Anywhere around here there are bears but backing onto bush makes it even more probable. I'm not sure how I am going to figure out what I can do/not do but I am curious to hear other's perspectives with having vegetable gardens, berries and compost in bear country (black bears, NOT grizzly bears.) I am assuming there are some where you live since you seem to be in bear country as well.
Thanks Jennifer!
Nola, I am sorry it took me so long to answer your questions!
I don't have any berries planted here but I did at our old place and we have had compost areas at both places. I haven't had any issues with bears yet thankfully. There are some bears in this area but they haven't visited us. We do have a 6 foot fence around our garden and compost and bees and so I am sure that has helped. Our neighbor thinks that a bear has been getting his fish guts so if that is true we have had a bear very close but I would guess the fence kept him out. My biggest concern with the bears have been the bees but thankfully they haven't ever gotten into them.
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