Drying Organic Herbs at Herbvalley
After harvesting the organic herbs and collecting them from the fields, we are now finally ready to dry them. At Herbvalley, we handpick our herbs and place them in baskets showering them with much affection and care. When the herbs get to the warehouse they get rinsed and pat dried before being brought to the actual drying process.
Genuinely, drying the herbs is quite tricky as to keep their flavour along with their medical benefits. There are several ways to drying herbs, but what is the best method for drying herbs? Shall you simply air dry them, use an oven or a dehydrator, this could be a big question indeed. At Herb Valley we think that the best method when it comes to drying herbs is using a dehydrator room which is pitch dark. We found that using a dehydrator is one of the most convenient ways of drying herbs for teas and its very advantageous in delivering consistent results. The darkness of the room helps the herbs keep more of its medicinal benefits and it also keeps a much nicer colour, a heavier smell and even stronger taste compared to sun drying. The light of the sun makes the herb turn yellowish or brownish losing a lot of its flavour, medicinal and nutritional properties.
At Herb Valley we dry our herbs as soon as possible with a low heat, about (45-50)o C, and humidity is being controlled by the machine automatically. Keep in mind that a very high temperature might dry the herbs on the outside while the inside of the herbs still remains moist. This means the herbs will decompose and mould from the inside. Once our organic herbs are completely dry, we store them in big glass jars and place them in our store room which again is dark, dry and cool. While ovens, bigger microwaves and sun drying (which is not possible everywhere) could destroy the flavours as well as many medicinal properties of the herbs.
At Herbvalley, we have a dark room dehydrator made especially for us, where there is no light and the temperature is the right one for our herbs. We use stainless steel trolleys with drying racks on them so that we can dry a good amount at once. Our drying room measures 13 square meters and fits 8 trolleys. The whole drying room is controlled by a computerized touch screen, and it all happens automatically but if needed to, we can change and control settings on our screen. Now for our beloved environment which we so much respect here at Herb Valley, our factory is completely solar powered and this is how our drying room runs too.
