Drying sage, but doing it right: 4 ways for the best aroma

When the sage harvest is imminent from May to the end of August, there are large quantities of sage leaves that need to be dried and stored. So that you don't lose a bit of the valuable aroma, there are different ways of drying that make the tea or the finished spice all the more digestible. The methods are effective for preserving salvia and thereby making the leaves durable for up to two years.

preparation

Before you can start drying, of course, you first need the sage leaves, which you can harvest over and over again during the period mentioned above. If you want particularly tasty sage, harvest just before flowering in June, as most of the essential oils are found in the leaves at this point. The intensity of the aroma already decreases during flowering, even if a large number of leaves are still sprouting. After you've harvested the sage plants, prepare them as follows:

• check the leaves for white spots
• weed them out as this is an infection with powdery mildew
• shake out the leaves thoroughly
• this is how you remove dust, earth and other foreign matter
• do not wash the sage, as washing will affect drying

Be sure to process the leaves immediately after harvesting and not wash them. The longer you wait to dry, the more aroma the leaves will lose and this will negatively affect the end result. If you wait too long, your sage tea in particular would only taste faintly like the herb, which is undesirable. You have the following four options for preserving the leaves:

• in the air
• in the oven
• in the dehydrator
• in the microwave

Tip: If you want to increase your harvest yield, you should remove the inflorescences before flowering in June. This allows the plant to focus entirely on the formation of fresh, herbaceous shoots.

Air drying

One of the best ways to provide you with dried leaves for your sage tea is through air drying. With this, the sage leaves, as the name suggests, are air-dried in order to tickle the full potential of the aroma from the leaves. Along with ice, air is one of the oldest preservatives and is therefore extremely suitable for sage. Depending on the amount, space and whether you use whole shoots or just leaves, there are two different approaches to processing the fresh leaves, which are carried out as follows:

1. If you have whole shoots, tie them together with a thread or raffia in the lowest area. This gives you several bundles or small bouquets that you can easily hang upside down. Store the bundles in a dark place that is protected from rain and moisture, such as the garden shed. Over time, keep pulling the bond tighter as the dried sage loses substance.

2. Loose leaves of the sage, on the other hand, are laid out to dry. Newsprint or a gauze frame on which you distribute the leaves are suitable for this. These are also stored in a dark and dry place. Take even greater care here that accidental gusts of wind don't blow the leaves away.

Air drying takes between eight and 14 days for the herbs to dry. You can recognize dried sage by the fact that it crumbles easily as soon as it is touched. In addition, a rustling can always be heard as soon as the tufts are transported. When processing the dried individual leaves, be careful not to crumble them in your hands. To do this, simply transfer the leaves to the containers for storage.

Use the oven

The oven is quite suitable for drying the sage quickly and effectively. Compared to air drying, the oven has the advantage that more aroma is retained in the leaves and the sage is completely dried after a period of six to eight hours. So you don't have to wait two weeks before you can enjoy your sage as a tea. Proceed as follows:

• prepare one or more baking sheets with parchment paper
• spread the leaves and shoots on these for preservation
• make sure that the individual leaves and shoots do not touch each other
• preheat the oven to 40 ° C fan-assisted
• place the trays in the oven
• do not close the door completely, use a wooden spoon, cork or piece of wood to prevent the door from slamming shut
• turn the leaves and shoots every 30 minutes
• after six to eight hours turn off the oven and let it cool down
• do not close the door, otherwise condensation will form
• never fill the leaves warm, because here too condensation forms in the glass, which makes them rot

Note: Despite the effectiveness of the furnace, this process consumes a great deal of energy. Therefore, this variant is not necessarily environmentally friendly.

Use the dehydrator to help

As an alternative to the oven, you can use an automatic dehydrator. This is specially designed for such projects and is easy to use. Depending on the size of the dehydrator, there are between five to 20 sieve trays available on which to distribute the sage. Fill the individual floors to a maximum of 90 percent so as not to overfill them while drying. Set the dehydrator to a suitable setting (operating instructions) and let the leaves dry for eight to ten hours. After this time, the dried leaves should still have a green hue and be somewhat pliable, as this variant gently pulls the liquid out of the leaves.

Note: Never dry other herbs while you have the sage in the dehydrator. That would lead to an unpleasant mix of different flavors.

For those in a hurry: the microwave

A particularly fast variant is drying in the microwave. To do this, simply put an appropriate amount of leaves in a microwave-safe container and place it in the device. Make sure that the individual sheets are not stacked on top of each other, otherwise you will have to turn them every 15 seconds. The kitchen appliance is set to a power of 200 watts and left in the microwave for ten seconds. Then check how dry the leaves are. Depending on the amount, this process can take longer.

Note: A disadvantage of this method is the loss of valuable, essential oils, which are destroyed when drying in the microwave. This is very quickly noticeable in your tea, since the sage tea has only a few aromas and the dried herbs are better suited for smoking or for decorating in drying arrangements.