Stripping Oregano this evening.
The Asian grower at the local farmer's market had big bundles of oregano, much bigger than any household could use for cooking - so I bought two.
Thyme, Oregano and Sage I prefer to dry myself because I find the store bought stuff of inferior quality. Of course it's a little tedious, especially fot thyme, because you have to get the leaves off the stems right away or a good part of what you want gets sucked back into the stems as the leaves dry. Oregano is pretty easy to strip though, and sage even easier.
Then I spread it out in a big shallow winnowing basket and put it in a place that's warm with good circulation - and out of the sun because direct sunlight will bleach the goodness out of the leaves.
I don't grow much in herbs myself because there isn't much area with good sunlight here - too many trees. The sage I grow is for medicinal purposes. I get maybe one cold a year, and when I do it's pretty bad and I depend on strong sage tea to prevent nasal drip - it dries you up real good with no side effects. Garden sage, by the way, doesn't work at all. The giant white sage from Ojai works very well, and I've found Cleveland sage (not named after the city) works very well also.
I am planning to grow a few things this year, particularly a special chili you just can't buy around here (a habanero with all the flavor but no heat) - and a whole mess of cilantro. Getting cilantro around is certainly no problem - but cilantro roots are another thing entirely. They're only used in Thailand (and a little in Indonesia) but I do a lot of Thai cooking. I'll just let them get old, then harvest the roots.
