Harvesting & Drying Fresh Basil

I was recently given a very healthy and beautiful basil plant. Every year our gardening skills expand and we do better and better. I have never tried herbs though so when I was given this plant I was excited to give it a try. 

Here are the supplies I started with... 

Basil plant

Mason Jar or planter

Gardening gloves

Dirt

The first thing I needed to do was transplant the already beautifully growing basil plant into my jar or container of choice. I decided to use a mason jar because I love that country decor style and with any luck I will convince Mr. Muddy Boots to build me a nice holder where I can put each of my herb plants into a mason jar and have it attached to the wall. :)

I had originally started with a regular mouth pint size jar and decided it was to small. The wide mouth pint size turned out to work very nicely. I filled the jar a little more than half way with fresh potting soil. I than popped the plant out of the plastic planter it was in and gently set it on top of the potting soil. Then I filled the holes around it with fresh potting soil as well. 

Next I added the wide mouth ring to the jar. It serves no purpose other than decor. Obviously if you are not using a mason jar this step would be skipped and if you are using a mason jar and prefer to not use a ring you would also skip this. If you are using one and are doing this step be careful to damage any of the leaves as you slide the ring down to the rim of the jar. 

As you see now that it's planted, it is rather tall. So I had to decide where to snip it off.

This plant probably should of been snipped down much earlier than this. I dropped the ball a bit. (oops...) You want to snip right above where your starter leaves are. 

This is the best visual I could find online. (credit to: www.areogarden.com)

So this is where I decided to snip it. 

So this is what I ended up with. 

Now for the drying... :) 

Here is what you need... 

Microwave safe plate

Two paper towels or napkins

Scissors

Basil 

Also... a container to keep your finished crushed basil in. (not pictured)

Cut of the leaves. 

Note: Before starting I rinsed the entire piece in cold water and let it sit to dry for a little bit. It was slightly wet still when I started. 

Now that you have collected the leaves off the stem spread out a paper towel / napkin on top of your microwave safe plate and put scatter your leaves in the center. 

Put the plate in the microwave and spread out the second paper towel / napkin on top of the leaves. 

Microwave for 1 minute. 

Your leaves should look like this (above). 

Continue microwaving in intervals of 15 seconds until your leaves are completely dried and brittle. Mine took 4 intervals of 15 seconds in addition to the first 1 minute. So they took a total of 2 minutes. 

Now use your fingers to crunch up the basil and put into a container for your next recipe! The leaves should be very easy to crunch up to the amount of your liking. 

Enjoy!