Drying Parsley

Drying parsley in the microwave gives you an 'instant result'.

Drying any herb is not easy - our ancestors had no choice in the matter but their homes were very different to ours.

To dry herbs in the conventional way involves having them hanging around for days or weeks - the results can be good or disastrous - ie they go mouldy and are unuseable.

The problem with drying herbs in the old fashioned way is that if your results are bad, then you don't get another chance because the herbs have stopped growing.

By drying in the microwave, you know within minutes if it's worked - if it's failed, you can simply go out and pick some more and have another go.

I'll give instructions here for drying parsley, but this method holds good for any herb.

One thing you need to bear in mind though is that drying with heat does impair the flavour to some extent - the heat destroys the essential oils - but the choice is yours - freezing is my preferred method of preserving herbs and the instructions are in the 'preserving herbs' section on the sidebar.

Drying Parsley
Pick your parsley just before it flowers. It's best to do it in the morning just after the dew has evaporated and before the sun gets too strong - this is a lovely job.

Wash and drain the parsley on some paper towel and then place the sprigs on a microwave proof plate.

Blast for 30 seconds and then turn the sprigs over and blast another 30 seconds.

Leave to cool and see if the sprigs are brittle - if they are, then crumble them into jars, if not, give them another 30 seconds.

It's quite simple and as you can see drying parsley, takes very little time.

For an explanation of gardening terms that you might not understand, please check out the Growers Dictionary section.
I found that I was either skimping on explanations or giving too much information on the individual pages so I have posted all relevant terms in one section - if there's anything you need to know, please drop me an email.

Drying Parsley to Preserving Index