Too Young To Be Grumpy

When I was out the other day I was trimming our garden back so that it was actually possible to walk around some of the little grass paths. This involved cutting back a sage shrub that was getting a bit assertive in its bid to take over the garden. However, it seemed a shame just to chuck the bits I cut off, so I consulted the wonderful RHS Encyclopedia of Gardening and it told me how to dry the herbs for later use. They gave a number of options, but the quickest (and I'm always up for the quickest way to do chores) was to use the microwave.

First you wash the leaves and pat them down, so they're no longer wet. Lay them out on a sheet of kitchen paper.


Arrange the leaves on a sheet of kitchen paper

Bung them in the microwave for 2 to 3 minutes. Because of the way microwaves work, this will remove all the moisture from the leaves leaving them crispy and curled up. They will then easily crumble between the fingers.


Crumble the leaves

The book suggests you should keep them in a dark glass jar in a cool, dry place. I'm not sure what's with the dark-glass bit, but we have loads of really small tupperware-like tubs that are no good for anything else, so we're using one of those.


A pot of ready to use, dried sage

Now we just need a recipe that uses sage!