Foraging and Drying Natural Herbs for Food, Healing and Soap

First gather the herbs you want to use for cooking, teas or medicine. 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), goldenrod, fireweed, stinging nettle, thyme, oregano, ground ivy (also called creeping Charlie), usnea (also called "old mans beard" lichen, grows hanging from trees at the river, has elastic thread inside), chamomile (I use wild, also called pineapple weed. It grows all over my driveway.) I'm sure there are many more up here that I haven't listed.

 

Many of these are great for cooking and teas, all have healing properties. Please test them for allergic reactions before using. Some, like usnea, are best used topically only. Usnea is not toxic, but it's so acidic as to cause digestive problems. Stinging nettle stings! So be careful picking it. The stinging is gone once it has dried or cooked, and it makes a great tea or spice for soup. Horsetail is very high in silica, great for hair and nails and other areas. Rosemary and usnea are antifungal, and as such will help more your hair grow faster is applied topically in a tea or oil. These are just some of the benefits to using these herbs. Please do your own research and consult a doctor for any health issues you have and any medication they may react with.  

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 also use purslane and feverfew, which I grow myself. Both are powerful herbs that I use regularly but they don't grow up here. I consider the plantain important, but it's everywhere.  If you are unsure of something growing, google it or take a close clear photo and ask online what it is. If not sure, it's best to leave it alone. 

 

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 marvellous. 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 with holes cut in them, to keep out dust and insects and the bags will catch them as they shrink and fall out of the ties. The bags also help keep dust and insect off, if outside.

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 a 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. Safety Tip: Wear a mask to grind dry herbs. You don't want to breathe in the dust from the grinder. 

You can spend your summer collecting and processing the herbs, then make the salves and soaps in the winter.