Dried Basil

My basil has perked up now that the weather has cooled a bit.   Basil likes hot weather and a couple of really cool nights will make it turn black.  But, even it could not hold up to the days and days of 100-plus degree temperatures, like we had this summer.

During most of the summer, I barely had enough to meet demand and rarely brought any home from our Farmers' Market.  However, last Saturday I had a couple of bags left over and decided to dry it for use this winter.

I have a dehydrator, but it is fairly large and I didn't want to get it out for such a small amount of basil.  Several years ago, I had pretty good results drying it by simply laying it on sheets of newspaper on the dining room table.  So, I decided to go that route.  I stripped the leaves from the stems and laid it on a paper towel in an out-of-the-way place on my kitchen counter.

Here is what it looked like this afternoon.

I put it in a zip-lock snack bag just like this.  I may have even more left after tomorrow's market.  If so, I may end up drying some more.