[HeidiRainCountry]

I dehydrate all my herbs. I only make fresh herb based tinctures very rarely, I mostly use dried herbs for making an extract using homemade wine and honey as a solvent and I have found them to be very effective. In fact because of my recent injury, my pain extract has been excellent and it was made out of all dried herbs, homemade wine and raw honey. I realize there are varying opinions on this process: fresh or dried herbs, this solvent or that, but I can attest to what has worked for us and this includes the other medicinal extracts such as the antibiotic, the muscle relaxer/sleep inducer, et cetera). One thing to keep in mind is that when it comes to drying herbs, one can preserve the properties best by going for a lower heat setting. I typically use 110° but you can go down to 95° for the most delicate herbs. This is where I prefer to use my Nesco stackable dehydrator as I can put the less delicate things closer to the heat source while the more delicate is placed farther away making it so that I do not have to dry them all separately at different temperatures. If I am drying all of the same herbs or all herbs that do best at the same setting, then I might use my cabinet style dehydrator. In the case of herbs, I would personally never use an oven to dry and those who live in a dry climate can simply hang dry.