Dried Savory and Oregano

How to prepare dried savory and oregano

1. Tie the herbs into bunches with string like flower bouquets. Don't make the bunches excessively large/full, so air has room to circulate. Using the string, hang the bunches upside down in an airy place, but somewhere the sun doesn't beat directly on them (a pantry is fine). The bunches are hung upside down so that all the volatile oils in the plant collect in the leaves.
2. Let them dry for a few weeks, until when you crush the leaves between your fingers they crumble.
3. At this point you can keep the bunches as they are, in paper or fabric bags. They are kept this way because in some recipes you will use whole sprigs so you can remove them at the end (see here how dried savory sprigs are used in lucicos) and because this way the leaves retain their aroma longer.
   I keep most of the bunches like this and from them, when I run out, I make a small jar of crumbled savory/oregano as below.
4. Take the dried bunch and place it in a sturdy bag. Beat the bunch well with a meat mallet, then take it between your palms and rub vigorously (I wear silicone gloves because when rubbing, the dried twigs poke even through the bag). You will see the dried leaves fall to the bottom of the bag. Persist and rub until most of the leaves come off.
5. Remove the bunch from the bag. Rub with your fingers the leaves that haven't separated from the bunch. Discard the bunch after you've cleaned it as well as you could. Empty the leaves from the bag onto parchment paper and spread them out.
7. Pick out and discard the larger twigs you find among the leaves.
8. Using the paper, pour the leaves into a food processor/coffee grinder. Grind them until uniformly fine.
9. Store the dried crumbled savory/oregano in glass jars.

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