How to Dehydrate Herbs and Make Your Own Spices

If you have a bumper crop of herbs and want to experiment with your own spices, this video will show you a simple way to harvest, prepare, and dehydrate herbs. You can mix them into your own spice blends, or preserve them as-is to use for cooking.

00:00 - Intro
00:51 - Herb Harvest Tips
01:54 - Harvest Montage
02:42 - Ginger & Tumeric Harvest
03:33 - Lemon Grass
04:37 - Prepping For Dehydration
08:21 - Loading The Excalibur
10:45 - Grinding Herbs
12:35 - Outro

IN THIS VIDEO

Thank you to Excalibur for sponsoring the video, their 9-Tray 48-hour timer dehydrator is perfect for long and large dehydrating batches:

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[shfarmhouse]

Hey Kevin, im 12 and i have a homemade tea and csndles company called S & H Farmhouse. You inspired me to start a garden when i was 7 and mow i raise meat rabbbits, and grow and dehydrate all my own tea. it wouldnt be possible without you. thank you

[pascalxus]

My dehydrator is called "the car". just put it in a tray on a 95 degree summer day and 12 hours later, you've got dried herbs without all the electricity cost of a dehydrator. and the fresh scent of herbs in your car as a bonus too!

[livininamerica]

Herbs are about the only thing I don’t kill lol. I had mint that I thought was dead, not a hint of green anywhere. I pulled it out of the corner, gave it a little water and suddenly there were green leaves all over. I was shocked! Oregano too, I thought it was killed after having negative temps last winter. It looked terrible in the spring. But then it took off and I had too much! I use a 25 year old dehydrator my grandmother left me to dry my stuff out

[dannin]

If you don't have a dehydrator you can use Alton Brown's beef jerky method to dry things. Get some squareish air filters (preferable natural) and a fan. Put the herbs in the grooves put them all on top of each other if using multiple filters tie to fan turn on low and wait

[rplittle]

When slicing your turmeric & ginger a good idea is to use a mandolin you can slice them paper thin.

[micheler.]

Freezing chunks of ginger works good too. Then just take them out and grate them into food. You get the fresh flavor that way.

[shawnplowman]

I got into dehydrating this year, it’s addictive. I dehydrated fruits, tomato peels, citrus and rinds, herbs, greens, squash and whatever else I had in my garden. A really good YouTube video on how to dry all types of foods is Purposeful Pantry. This is a great starter video.

[ArmstrongMixture]

I dehydrated my extra jalapenos and chili peppers this year, and ground them up into a fine, extra spicy powder that adds some POP to any dish!

[elizabethraworth]

Great timing. Gardening goal 2022 is growing my own taco seasoning.

[PhosphorAlchemist]

Great video about storage prep!

One more tip for storage is to size your jar close to the volume of your contents if you can. Excessive headspace is one of the ways you lose aroma/potency over time. *Of course*, use what containers you have available -- open to the room is the ultimate in exessive headspace -- but if you have the option use tiny jars for your tiny amounts and bigger jars for your bulk spices you'll get longer preservation from your dried herbs.

[paulp]

Love the hard work you put in Kevin.
The thick joke had me in stitches 😄

[miamited]

When you dehydrate, always leave in a sealed jar for a week to make sure no moisture condenses on the inside of the jar. If it does they are not fully dried.

[neilscole]

I mostly grow herbs (currently rent a townhouse; can only have a container garden on my deck), so I make lots of dried herbs for cooking and tea. My wife will herb and spice blends for cooking. We've gone through several spice grinders, and that Cuisanart one is the best.

[GrowingOrganicTvShow]

Great idea making your own Italian spice blend. Plus health benefits of homegrown turmeric, ginger and turmeric are off the charts.

[UrbanChickenMomma]

I've always hung my herbs to dry. Thanks for the obvious idea to use my dehydrator. My basil is doing well in my Aerogarden ( I'm near Seattle ) despite my new puppy chewing the wires in half yesterday. Not fun, but fixed now. 🧑‍🌾 Looks like you're finally on the chicken train!! Woop woop❣️

[kathrynnielsen]

I have heard of the idea of leaving your dried herbs whole until you need them (maybe not for a mix), and then crush them straight into the pot. It keeps them longer.

[Ashley-ltrc]

Yes, you actually can use tumeric as a dye, one of my all time fave herbs! Love this channel.

[melissarecord]

We love our Excalibur dehydrator! My husband made a bunch of chili powder this year. I plan on doing a lot more herbs next year after finding out many types that we commonly use have heavy metals in them. Growing our own seems a lot safer.

[Vermicompost]

This is the video I needed right now!!! I've got overgrown herbs everywhere & need to do something quick! Great video from start to finish. Thanks!!!🪱🪱🪱

[Grzzly]

Your videos are awesome man 👍 so glad I found your channel. It’s my first year growing anything and your videos have helped me tremendously!