Drying Oregano
Because: Pizza!
Most Friday nights are pizza nights in this neck of the woods, and this Kat rarely buys pre-made pizza. However, I did happen to notice the other day that my stock of dried oregano was getting perilously low. I used the word perilous as a descriptor as I just don't know what would happen to reality if my heathens didn't get their weekly pizza fix. Heck, I wouldn't want to know what would happen to this realm if I didn't get my weekly pizza feeding either!
Now, I have three large, beautiful oregano plants. I got the little beauties as starts from my Grandma, and they yield plenty of leaves of pizza flavoring loveliness every year. It is a couple of weeks before optimum harvest time though, so I thought I would just pick and dry enough oregano to see me through the next couple of pizza nights.
And yes, I could just go out and pick, wash, chop, and use fresh oregano when I make pizza sauce, but I have habits my friends, and my pizza sauce making repertoire requires dried oregano!
In order to accomplish operation Essential Pizza Sauce Herbal Element (EPSHE for short), I had to go out to the oregano plant and get my harvest on. Of course I got distracted by the chives being in bloom, but seriously, who wouldn't want to stop and take a look or picture of this:
Distraction complete, I moved over to the oregano plants. Now, I prefer to harvest my herbs for drying right before the plant blooms, but that old saying in-needers can't be choosy-iers popped into my cranium and I moved on with plucking just enough leaves from the oregano plants to hold me over in pizza sauce department for a couple of weeks.
Leaves harvested, I took my colander inside to give my little future food additives a bath. I always pick my around the house food and place it right into a colander. This helps me to remind myself that I need to wash the stuff. It also is probably less work and dishes than if I harvested something into a vessel and then needed to get out another vessel for washing purposes. I always get a kick out of magazines that show people all perfect and clean, going out to harvest some food or herb with a super special container, all with not a single hair out of place. I am pretty sure that a more accurate representation of homestead harvest is a woman with a messy bun and Grinch print fleece pants, packing a local grocery store plastic bag in one hand and covering up her barely awake squinting eyes with the other, all while trying to swipe the smear of hot cocoa off of her cheek. Oh, wait, that was me this morning...
Anyway, I gave my oregano a thorough rinse and moved on to the dehydrator part of the herb drying festivities.
Now, there are some super fancy dehydrators out there, and if you have one, I am so pleased for you, truly!! Most of the time I spread my herbs out on old, clean window screens and dry them in the kitchen of my barn as it is out of the sun and has good ventilation. For lazy and/or I need the dried thing faster times, I have a tray dehydrator that my husband picked up for me at Harbor Freight Tools. It maybe cost $30, and you know what? It totally gets the job done!
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I plugged De-hy in before I went to bed and this morning my little bit of oregano was a perfect level of King Tut on the dryness scale. I crumbled the leaves into a bowl, and you can bet you last slice of pepperoni pie that tonight's pizza night will commence as usual!
Oooh, it looks like a cat face in that pile of oregano, instead of tea leaf reading it's herb leaf eisegesis! Neato!
Because....PIZZA!!!!! EPSHE-accomplished!!!
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Nothing’s better than plants grown in your own garden , they have a distinctive smell and taste
So very true! I love all things homegrown and homemade, although sometimes it's nice to have someone else do the "made" part, ha ha!
Oh you rock the Grinch print fleece pants too? Sweet!
I never knew what oregano looked like, almost fooled me for it being mint!
Oh yes, chives! I shot some last year! They remind me of Horton Hears a Who. Now Im talking the classic cartoon, not that modern stuff lol.
Have a great weekend Kat!
OOH! Old Guy chive pictures! They are so lovely! And Who-like, you are so right!
It was cool that you thought oregano looked like mint, they are in the same plant family, so I guess oregano is like the pungent uncle or something? Lol!
My Grinch pants were bestowed upon moi by my family this Christmas, and they also say naughty or nice all over them. When you are the size of a small sixth grader it helps to rock some attitude at times;) Although, now I am thinking that we might have to have a #grinchpants tag or something, as there are just so many people wearing the Seuss swag on this platform, :D!
A bit warm for them today but yeah lol.
😆
Lovely, just lovely!
Wow, I didn't think of using the dehydrator on my herbs. I thought you had to hang them in paper bags for some reason. Thanks, I have huge loads of oregano that needs to be picked yesterday! Oh, and, a bun? Now that is fancy! Hehe your posts always make me smile.
Awe, thank you my friend! Hope you got that oregano a-drying!
And by bun I mean something that looks like a vortex of barely restrained amino acid strands of doom!! Totally fancy, LOL!
Lmao! That is a fantastic way to describe your updo. I call it fancy cos often I will stagger out back to let the hens out with troll doll hair and wearing a skirt as a tube dress. #homesteadchic fashion show! Hey, sounds like a contest I might wanna make happen.
I picked a colander full of oregano today, and barely made a dent! Abundance explosion ftw!
Cheers!
I loved the Grinch pants part! That's me most of the time...Just add the smell of bug spray, mosquitoes are voracious!
Your distraction is so pretty! My chives are near my oregano also. Having just been transplanted this year, the oregano is not ready yet for harvest.
Re: dehydrators: Here in New England the humidity us often unreal, like yesterday, somewhere in the upper 90's is my guess. For some reason my gauge only goes to 80% and it was pegged all day.
Plant material will not dry well here and there's a good chance of bacteria/mold growing before it ever could. So my dehydrators are crucial.
The other important part to dehydrating is that if the drying temp exceeds 145F it kills all the enzymes and heat sensitive nutrients, one of the reasons for dehydrating in the first place: higher nutrition or value of medicinals. That's why using an oven isn't the best option. I like the control of temp with the Excalibur, and in the volume I generate, it is worthwhile.
Ha ha! Comfort and convenience makes farm work time better, lol! I also have this pair of jeans that I have owned at least a decade that I continue to wear when I garden, mow, or weedeat. They are rather hole-decorated at this point, and I know they irritate my children, so they are totally my favorite pants;)!
Oh, I am so sorry your mosquitoes are so horrid. For some strange reason mosquitoes do not bite me, rather they prefer to swarm around and perch on my head or arms for a rest or something. My dad's the same way, weird genetic mosquito repellent, and I always feel so sorry for the rest of humanity as those little buggers are relentless in their vampiric ways!
Oh, you have an Excalibur, those are so lovely! I looked into buying one, and still might someday, I love how the trays are situated. A lot of the time in the summer here our humidity is like 11%, so drying things is easy, but the science-loving part of me adores the control aspect that you can achieve with your dehydrator! I can't wait to see all of your drying activities if you are going to blog about them this summer! That's awesome!!!
My garden clothes and my straw hat are just this side of rags. They get worn until they are rags. So I'm not at all stylish like @walkerland!
I suppose there must be drawbacks to 11% humidity, but I sure can't think of one! No wonder you can dry so successfully.
I actually have 2 9 tray Excaliburs. One is on a sort of permanent loan to me....
One thing I have found with the mosquitoes is that if I don't have anything sweet to eat in the 12 hours before I go out, they don't bother me as much. But lately, that's not been happening...
Ha ha! I thinks it's stylish to be the opposite of stylish;o)
I wore the same straw hat for years until I had to whack an unruly bovine on the rump with it and my adored hat disinigrated into a thousand pieces. I mourned.
Our summer days are usually in the mid eighties during the day and around fifty-five at night on average. It's glorious. There are some growing challenges and an occasional blast of humidity from a thunderstorm, but I sure love it:o)
And now I am super, super almost envious, not one but two Excaliburs, lol, lucky lady!!
Had a good laugh about the sugar thing, good luck with that;o)!
My hat's crown got sewed together before I started using it this year, so it's good for another year.
I am envious of your temps, they are pretty reasonable for summer.
My garden clothes and my straw hat are just this side of rags. They get worn until they are rags. So I'm not at all stylish like @walkerland!
I suppose there must be drawbacks to 11% humidity, but I sure can't think of one! No wonder you can dry so successfully.
I actually have 2 9 tray Excaliburs. One is on a sort of permanent loan to me....
One thing I have found with the mosquitoes is that if I don't have anything sweet to eat in the 12 hours before I go out, they don't bother me as much. But lately, that's not been happening...
I bow before the pizza mistress and repent of my store-bought ingredients.
...NOT! [/90s kid]
To which I ninetily reply, AS IF
It's okay pizza padawan, keep on doing your best. There, there.
Pizza without oregano? That would be horrible. Only garlic is more important. Lots and lots of garlic. Enough to kill Dracula.
I just finished mowing my neighbor's lawn and my own lawn and it's nearly 90 freaking degrees and I had to do it today because the grass is finally dry but who know for how long and I am so sickened by the heat I am writing run-on sentences. I'm starting to think shoveling snow isn't so bad.
Please remember to point out that last paragraph to me when I'm complaining about the snow this upcoming winter. Thanks in advance.
Hmm. Your garlic thoughts regarding proper pizza construction reminded me a of a certain teacher I had, her breath contained enough garlic scent to wipe out the entire cast of Underworld ten times over. That level of garlic is necessary for a pizza to be right, I agree, heh.
Chops, did you properly hydrate? I was a little concerned as your normally impeccable grammar was melting along with apparently yourself. I'll tuck this sentence into the memory bank for later this year:
As Maui would sing: You're welcome!
I love the oregano a pizza if in I think it would not be pizza, I like to make many meals besides the pizza with the oregano as sauteed potatoes with matequilla and oregano are the best
I like that you have it fresh and what you cultivate, I'm already imagining the smell of that oregano
I agree with you, pizza is just not pizza without oregano!
Ooh, I love oregano on potatoes, especially Greek oregano, yum! For some strange reason I am really hungry for breakfast now, lol, think I better go eat!
Hope you are having a lovely weekend my friend:)
I agree ... pizza takes dried oregano ... the flavor is different from the fresh. Do you really grinch pants ... I think a photo may be in order. I have just returned from karate and am super hungry and very lazy. Do you think popcorn pizza would work?
Isn't it funny how herb's flavor profiles change when dried?!
I was joking with Old Guy that perhaps a #grinchpants tag is in order, and I am going to do a homestead fashion post, it just seems like a funny idea, lol! So a picture will happen!!
Ah, I hope you got tons of food into your system, it most definitely had to be needed after a bit of sparring. You are seriously the most awesome for engaging in all of that martial arts training, I think a popcorn pizza could be a thing, I just have no idea how it would taste :D!
In the end, I went butter, marmite and parmesan popcorn ... that a Eclipse. Nothing like sappy vampire romantic movie to relax with:)
In the end, I went butter, marmite and parmesan popcorn ... that a Eclipse. Nothing like sappy vampire romantic movie to relax with:)
STOPThe oregano can not be missing in any kitchen, it is an ingredient that gives a unique flavor to the meals, tell me the pizzas, without oregano it does not have that peculiar flavor, the oregano is the maximum for me. The publication is very good
You are so right, a kitchen needs oregano to be complete!
Thank you so much for your kind words!