Food Saver Series: Tea Herbs

Chamomile, Lemon Balm and Echinacea

I love to dry tea herbs – for one they are as easy to dry as regular herbs, and two I know with every batch that gets done I will have wonderful tea to enjoy all winter. Not to mention it also makes a great gift!

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Food Saver Series: Tea Herbs

Drying Chamomile:

Food Saver Series: Tea Herbs, drying chamomile, drying lemon balm, drying echinacea, making your own tea, diy tea mixes

To dry Chamomile you can either snip off or pinch off the blooms. I find that just pinching them off is a whole lot easier, mainly because they are so small. After I harvest, I let them dry on a plate in a warm area – usually by an open window on a hot day. A couple times a day I will roll them around just a little bit to make sure they are drying ok. It usually only takes a few days for them to dry completely, and you can usually tell when they are done because they fall apart pretty easily. If there is any doubt, leave them out a little longer.

Food Saver Series: Tea Herbs, drying chamomile, drying lemon balm, drying echinacea, making your own tea, diy tea mixes
Drying chamomile flowers

Once dry I pour them into a pint mason jar and use them as needed.

Food Saver Series: Tea Herbs, drying chamomile, drying lemon balm, drying echinacea, making your own tea, diy tea mixes
dry chamomile ready to use

Food Saver Series: Tea Herbs, drying chamomile, drying lemon balm, drying echinacea, making your own tea, diy tea mixes
Lemon Balm

Drying Lemon Balm:

Lemon Balm is very easy to dry. I cut the leaves and lay them out on a plate. Since they are thin, within just a day or two they will be dry. I think it is very appropriate that they are easy to dry since they make a very soothing tea…

Food Saver Series: Tea Herbs, drying chamomile, drying lemon balm, drying echinacea, making your own tea, diy tea mixes

Drying Echinacea:

Food Saver Series: Tea Herbs, drying chamomile, drying lemon balm, drying echinacea, making your own tea, diy tea mixes

Drying Echinacea takes a bit longer. For Echinacea tea you can use the flowers, stems, leaves and roots. The roots are usually made into medicinal powders. I want the plants to return year after year, so I just trim the flowers and cut some leaves off.

The flowers of Echinecea can be quite large, but the petals and leaves dry fairly quickly. When I am harvesting Echinacea I use my cooling racks for baking, I cut the flowers off and stick the stem down through the wire, so that the head is up. This way when the leaves dry, they are a bit easier to pull off the main part of the flower.

After the flowers are dry you can also save the seeds and plant more next year.

Food Saver Series: Tea Herbs, drying chamomile, drying lemon balm, drying echinacea, making your own tea, diy tea mixes
drying Echinacea

Food Saver Series: Tea Herbs, drying chamomile, drying lemon balm, drying echinacea, making your own tea, diy tea mixes
dry Echinacea

Happy tea making!

Dawn

Check back next Friday when I talk about how to dry and freeze summer squash!

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