Drying Basil

Basil does not do well with a frost.  The leaves turn yellow and die and all it is good for is to pull up the whole plant and compost it.  We have made lots of pesto with our basis this year and have numerous containers frozen, ready to be thawed out and mixed with pasta for a quick, delicious healthy meal.  If you can't have fresh basil, dried basil is the next best thing.

Prior to the frost, Tricia harvested the leaves remaining on the plants, brought them inside and washed them in the sink to get all the bugs and dust off of them.  We like to dry basil and store it in the pantry in ZipLoc storage bags for use in cooking various recipes.  Once the leaves are washed and dried, it is time to put them in our dehydrator.  We load them in a single layer, filling each tray, and turn it on.

Filling the dehydrator tray with basil leaves

We just leave it running until the leaves are dry and "crispy."  I think it took a day and a half, but we turned it off when we left the house for safety reasons.

Plugged in and drying the basil

There's no mistaking it when the basil is dried.  

Dried

I poured the dried basil into a storage bag and then we'll seal it and put it in the pantry.  If it is truly dry, it will have a good, long shelf-life.

This bag should be plenty to get us through until next Spring when we plant another row of Genovese basil and have fresh leaves to pick again.

Dried basil is great in soups and pasta dishes.  With the cold 'soup weather' coming up real soon, we'll put a serious dent in the dried basil inventory.