Herbs are best dried in a warm well ventilated room out of direct sunlight as this can cause the effectiveness and the flavour of the herb to be diminished. Flowers can be laid on a cloth or tissue and turned regularly until they are brittle and crumbly. Berries can either be hung up to dry in bunches or strung on cotton but please put something under them to catch the stray lose ones as it’s surprising how many bits of hawthorn, rowan and rosehip can escape and roll around in the bottom of airing cupboards and closets for years. Roots must be cleaned of all soil and debris and cut into storable sizes and left to dry as for flowers and leaves on a tissue or cloth in a warm dry place and turned often.
In homes nowadays it is rare to have an airing cupboard or even a warm dry place where stuff can be left o dry undisturbed, so there are other methods that can be employed but it really is trial and error and I recommend that you try then out on perhaps the more available plants such as dandelion rather than using the plant that you have a limited supply of , one that you have been searching for weeks and that you only collected half a dozen leaves from for specific use then blitzed in the oven until they became ash rendering them completely useless and a waste of a precious commodity.
So to other methods, the oven is one of the best ways if left on a cool setting and checked frequently until plant matter is crumbly and there are even ways that herbs can be dried in the microwave between layers of tissue and checked frequently, but I’m not a fan of this method as the thought of microwaves buzzing round my herbs does not thrill me.
You can also purchase herb drying units which consist of several layers that the herbs are placed on and the lid placed on top making it airtight and the dehumidifier switched on, these are very effective ways of desiccating herbs and plant material unfortunately these can work out very expensive to buy and rather cumbersome to store, but a fab piece of kit.
