What herbs should I buy dried vs fresh?
We’ve found that drying our own fresh-grown herbs (especially the seasonal ones, like basil and oregano) works really well – fresh-dried is far better than the average store-bought dried herbs. You can air-dry in a cool, dark place (a closet would work, if you put a fan in there to keep fresh air circulating), if you live in a sunny clime, you could even dry them on a sunny windowsill, or (for those of us in places such as Seattle) the home dryers work great for this. I don’t know what your climate is like, but the following are pretty easy to grow at home: basil, organo, thyme, parsley, tarragon (finding the plant is tricky, but once found it’s easy), and especially rosemary. Rosemary is almost a weed in some climates – and most herbs are somewhat weed-like, in that they really like to be left alone once established (not too much water, not too picky about soil or fertilizer). It cracks me up that Rosemary is so expensive in the stores, when it is so very easy to grow in a temperate c
