Do you dry your own greens and herbs? Advice?

[Eliza]

I have been buying dried greens and herbs and it is very expensive for a small amount.  Does anyone have experience doing this themselves?  I am interested in drying things like carrot tops, dandelions, herbs, strawberries?  How do you do this; if you use a dehydrator, which one would you recommend?

Thanks!

[Alyson]

Hi, I just joined this forum. Anyways I am an herbalist so I dry and work with herbs often. How you dry them depends on the herb. I hang some to dry, I put some in brown paper bags to dry, then I have also baked some. Personally I don’t own a dehydrator but it would do the the trick as well. For the ones you listed this is my advice…

Carrot tops- while still fresh cut them how you want them then put them in a brown paper bag to dry or if you want to keep them whole hang them tightly with string in a dark dry place (a closet or pantry does great).

Dandelions- first decide what parts you want from the dandelion because the entire plant is edible and has great medicinal properties. The root should be scrubbed clean and baked on low until thoroughly dried. The flowers and leaves should be dried separately in brown paper bags.

Strawberries- I haven’t dried these but I imagine baking is your best bet if not in a dehydrator. 

If you have any other specific herbs I will try my best to answer you.

[mocha200]

Alyson: Awesome! What would you do with:

Fresh Timothy Grass

Raspberry/Blackberry Leaves

Clover

[Bam]

I use a fruit- and mushroom dehydrator, http://royaldesign.co.uk/viewitem.aspx?ID=81515 You could probably find a more inexpensive one of the same type, but it needs to have both heat and a fan to be effective.

The advantage of using a dehydrator is that it saves time and space. I pick lots of mushroom in the fall, so I already had a dryer when I found my rabbit.

I’ve dried dandelion greens, ground-elder weed, carrot-tops, apple-leaves, rose leaves, hawthorne, hazel, mint, oregano, Mexican marigold greens etc. I then pack the dry leaves in plastic bags and seal them and feed them in the winter when nothing is growing. Very popular with my bunny! I’ve also made apple-chips which I use for treats.

[Velvet]

http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/nesco-american-harvest-dehydrator/0000000079638

 

This is the brand I own, although mine’s prolly ten years old and looks totally different, I also purchased the extra trays a bit later on, and can now make around 3 pounds of Beef Jerky. Well, 3 pound roast before drying anyhow…………………………..

[Sarita]

I think dried fruits and herbs are fine as far as treats if that is your intention, but they don’t replace the fresh greens.

[Bam]

Sorry if I didn’t make myself clear, I of course buy fresh greens for my rabbit in the winter, but the other seasons, I also pick lots of greens for him in my allotment garden. That’s where I get the the leaves I dry and give in the winter for variety’s sake, as a nice addition to his normal food (hay, pellets, fresh greens). He probably doesn’t really need it. I just like to spoil him. I spoil my dog too, (but not with dry leaves of course).

[Sarita]

Not you Bam, just in general :~)

[Alyson]

I have never dried timothy grass personally, but I imagine it is similar to drying other grasses, if its long grass tie it in a bunch tightly and hang it in a dark cool dry spot. If its small or you don’t have a place to hang dry them use brown paper bags. Raspberry and blackberries leaves I would bag those too. Simply throw them in a bag and it should be dry from anywhere between a couple days to two weeks.
I grow organic herbs in the summer and I wildcaft others. I use them medicinally on myself and loved ones. Now that I am a proud bunny momma I will put them to use for my big guy too.
Also for those putting them in plastic bags, unless you intend on feeding or using them within a week or two you are losing practically all nutritional value from them. Keep them in glass containers with tight fitting lids. Mason jars work perfectly but also recycled jars will work…like you bought a jar of salsa and you finished it, clean the jar with warm water and vinegar label and date and your set for 6 months or longer depending on the herb.

[Alyson]

Oh and clover, same with the leaves throw them in a paper bag and forget about them for a few days. I dry the leaves stems and flowers together. The flowers will take longer to dry out.

Another tip please please please do not pick herbs from the side of the road. If you have ever seen fresh snow thats suddenly black on the side of the roads you understand why. All crud from cars gets on them.

[mocha200]

Alyson: We have Timothy fields on the side of our roads so I tend to pick them there. I might try to walk back further on the side of the road now. Luckily we live on a private road and are the only people who like on it all year long.

[Alyson]

If the roads are rural and do not see much traffic you should be okay, but still try to take the herbs from as far away from the road as possible.

[Bam]

Alyson: “Also for those putting them in plastic bags, unless you intend on feeding or using them within a week or two you are losing practically all nutritional value from them. Keep them in glass containers with tight fitting lids.”

Is this true of hay as well? All hay I buy is in plastic bags. My rabbit never finishes even the smallest size bag of Oxbow timothy hay in a week or two. Is there a better way to store hay than in the bags it comes in?

[Velvet]

I lay wood stove pellets about an inch deep in Velvets litter boxes, then I put a nice layer of timothy hay over those, she sits in there for 10-15 minutes at a time eating hay as she goes, lol, kinda like reading a magazine I guess. I never throw any hay out, use it for litter plus keep a tray for eating besides her bed too! Hay takes the smell away too, smells fresh!

[Bam]

My bunny isn’t big on hay, maybe because it’s lost it’s nutritional value due to improper storing? He will eat like a handful/day. He loves chewing on apple-twigs though so nothing seems to be wrong with his teeth.

[Velvet]

God, I wish, Velvet does absolutely no chewing in Apple twigs or Willow branches. I guess it’s nice not to have the furniture not getting eaten, the rabbit I had 50 years ago when I was like 4, used to chew on wood, cords you name it. I do worry about Velvets teeth but, I asked the vet to check them when she was spayed Jan 16th at just about 3yo, he never commented so, hoping all’s well.

[Eliza]

Thanks everyone, I am thinking about purchasing a unit at Costco for human and rabbit use we eat a lot of dried and freeze dried items that we buy from Trader Joe’s. They like to have the occasional piece of dried fruit. They are older now almost 8 and 9 and when they are feeling bad the dried greens really help to stimulate their appetite when they are not interested in other things. I think it would be nice to dry flowers too but probably not unless I had grown them myself.

Bam maybe your rabbit does not like that particular hay, you can get lots of different types like orchard and timothy but even the same type of hay grown in different areas can taste very different. Our rabbits are very picky, we would buy hay from the same barn for a few months and they would act like it is crack then the next time they wouldn’t eat it. Now we stay with Oxbow, even though it is like $10 a week as apposed to $20 every 6 months, it is more consistent flavor wise I think. We definitely get bad bags of it occasionally with weird things in it, but that can happen with bale hay too. Normally mine are big chewers, eating apple and willow branches, they a go through the 40oz bag of Oxbox hay every 5-7 days.

[Bam]

I’ve tried several hay-types, but oxbow timothy seems to work best. 40 oz would last my rabbit a year!

Home-dried greens are very appreciated though, unfortunately I didn’t dry enough last summer to last the whole winter. And I did dry A LOT, I could never fit what I dry into glass-jars or I’d have to fill my apartment with glass-jars. Nothing seems to have happened with the greens I’ve stored in plastic-bags so far. They smell terrific, like tea (resembling the scent of Oxbow timothy hay). I dry them until they’re completely dry, the way I dry mushrooms. The least bit of moisture left in mushrooms will make them rot, very slowly but still rot. If they’re completely dry they’ll keep for years.

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