Sharer Kathy Powers contributed this guest post about how to dry flowers from the Stearns Farm flower garden.
“Drying flowers is easy, and we have so many beautiful flowers to choose from. Here’s how to preserve some of our gorgeous blooms to cheer you in the winter:
The types of flowers that are best for drying have very small heads. Some examples from our flower garden include the following (to see photos of these flowers, follow the links to the Johnny’s Selected Seeds website. Mel buys our seeds there) :
Both Nigella and Scabiosa have interesting seed pods that also dry easily. Most of these flowers retain their color.
To dry flowers: Pick your flowers, remove the bottom leaves, create a small bunch, tie with string or elastic band, and hang upside down until dry. It’s best to hang the flowers in a dark, dry place. Drying takes varying amounts of time depending on how thick the stems are. Johnny’s site has more detailed instructions.
As you probably know, many of our herbs can be dried too. I especially enjoy tea made from lemon verbena or mint during the winter; it brings me back to Stearns Farm .
How wonderful that, along with preserving delicious vegetables, we can take some of the farm beauty into the winter, too!”
