Save the Parsley!

Do you ever buy a bunch of parsley at the grocery store because you need some fresh stuff for a recipe or a garnish?  Then the other 90% of it that's left falls into the back of your refrigerator drawer where it withers away, only to be re-discovered weeks later as an unrecognizable bag of brown mush?

Here's an idea...you don't have to go 100% Martha Stewart-ish by growing your own herbs too (although I do grow a few myself and love to use them fresh in the summer!), but you can get the same end result by drying what's left of your grocery store "bunch" really easily.  You don't need any special tools, you don't need a dehydrator, and you don't even have to turn on your oven if you don't want to.

This is what I did today.  I took my left-over bunch out of the fridge, snipped off the stems, spread them out on a cookie sheet and set them in a "sun puddle" on our kitchen counter. Once I notice the sun is moving away from them, I scoot the pan over....

...by the time the boys are done with their naps, we have a huge tray of freshly dried parsley. 

 

Now just stick it in a glass food jar that you may have saved for future herb storage, or rescue one from your stash of recycleables.  Voila!  Don't you feel like Martha?! And sooo good for not wasting food? And even re-using a jar?  Oh how "green" of you!

I use the "sun puddle method" to dry and save the chives from my garden too.  We have a skylight in our kitchen which shines on the countertop, but you may find sun somewhere else in the house.  Of course you can just leave them to air dry without sun...it just happens quicker that way.

At the risk of overloading you with links, I pulled up a few links below for some cool spice jars and racks, spice jar labels, funnels to help fill them, and some drying racks below.  Happy herb drying! :-)