Oregano

I don't grow stuff outside. If you read one of my previous posts, you would have found links to all my failed growing projects. I'm lucky if I can grow grass. 

I was poking around outside one day, probably watering some grass, and I smelled something. It was familiar and fragrant. I found the plant producing this scent and then it clicked in my head because I'd just cooked with it recently. It was oregano.

Now I don't have a garden and I didn't plant any edibles intentionally. But this was unmistakably oregano. It's been there since we bought the house and has continued to grow year after year. I've never picked it or used it. Until now.

This year, I looked up when the best time to harvest oregano was and the best drying processes. I waited, and would occasionally sniff around the plant to see how strong the aroma was. I kept waiting. May passed. And then June arrived. Most websites I read told me to wait until the flowers start forming for the strongest flavor. Another website told me early June. So I watched and waited. 

Just before the middle of June, I saw some flower buds starting to form. A friend had just happened to visit me as well so the two of us cut a bunch of stems off and then tied them up to dry.

I cut a lot of oregano. This may turn into a yearly task.
Next year, I can ask my four-year-old to help me.

We hung them around my kitchen in bundles with twine. I had just elevated my kitchen from a normal updated kitchen to a rustic, Magnolia-style kitchen.

How can herbs tied with twine hung upside-down look so elegant? I have no idea.
We ended up moving these later.

Finding places to hang them to dry for 4-6 weeks was tricky. With young children, I couldn't hang them too low or else my one-year-old would grab at them. We opted to hang them from some upper cabinet handles on a built-in that doesn't get used often. 

After about two weeks, I realized some of the oregano leaves were starting to fall by themselves or if the bunches were disturbed  because of this, I made the decision to pull them all off the stems and continue to let them dry in a bowl  this probably isn’t the traditional fashion for drying oregano, but considering I wanted to save my oregano from the floor and ultimately the trash, this was the concession.

My big bowl of oregano leaves waiting to be ground down or crushed.

After about five weeks of drying, I ground them down and packed them into two old spice jars and a mason jar. So much oregano! I used them in cooking for the first time today. I'll be blogging about today's meal in a later post so stay tuned for that one.