How to Harvest, Dry, and Store Oregano

Timing is the whole game with oregano. Once it flowers, the flavor drops off, so you want to cut it right as the buds start to show. Look over your plant and you will see some stems already budding or blooming and others still all leaf. Skip the ones with flowers or buds.

Oregano is a woody perennial in the mint family, so it comes back every year. That is also why Deb keeps hers in a big tub - left in open ground, anything in the mint family will spread and can take over.

Grab a good pair of scissors or kitchen shears and something roomy to collect into - Deb uses a big Dollar Tree container. Then dig into the plant a little. The tips out front might be budding, but if you look deeper you will find plenty of sprigs with no flowers on them at all.

Those clean sprigs are what you want. Pull the branch up so you can see the whole stem before you cut, and set aside anything with buds for seed-saving.

Snip each sprig above a leaf node, cutting down close to the soil line on the stems you take. Cutting it back hard does not hurt the plant - the more you trim oregano, the thicker and healthier it grows back. It is the same idea that regrows basil after a heavy cut.

Work through the plant and take as many flower-free sprigs as you need. You do not have to harvest the whole thing at once. A little at a time is fine, and the plant will keep producing.

The oldest way to dry herbs is also the simplest. Gather several sprigs into a small bundle and tie food-grade cotton string or twine around the bottom. Knot it, then make a loop with a second knot so you have something to hang it by.

Hang the bundle somewhere with good air circulation, out of spots that are too hot, too cold, too bright, or too dark. Hanging is easy but slow - figure two to six weeks. If you are in a hurry, spread the sprigs on parchment and bake at your oven's lowest setting, or run them through a dehydrator at 95 to 120 degrees.

However you dried it, the test is the same. Grab a leaf and run it between your fingers. Dry oregano is crispy and crumbles completely, and it will have gone from bright green to a duller, store-bought green. If a leaf still bends instead of shattering, it needs more time.

In the dehydrator Deb runs hers about four hours at a low temperature. In the oven, bake an hour and add ten minutes at a time, watching closely - the oven can scorch herbs fast if you walk away.

Once the sprigs are crispy, run your fingers down each stem to pull the dried leaves off, and toss the stems - you do not store those. Working over a spread-out paper towel catches all the flakes and makes it easy to pour them into a jar later.

Now crush the leaves gently. You are after flakes, not powder, so do not overdo it. Deb keeps hers on the bigger side for sauces like spaghetti. Remember you can always crush more, but you can never make them bigger again.

Pour the crushed oregano into a small jar - Deb uses four-ounce quarter-pint jars, and a big funnel keeps it from going everywhere. One dehydrator load nearly filled a jar for her.

Label it with the herb and the year, then seal it up. A vacuum sealer attachment pulls the air out and keeps oregano good until next summer. No sealer? Just put the flat and ring on tight. Either way, the goal is the same: keep every bit of moisture out and it will last for months.