How To Dry Sage - The Kitchen Herbs

Sage leaves are mature from around 10 weeks after planting. They will have that typical fuzzy exterior and signature sage color.

You can gather leaves from the plant every week or so, as they mature, since the leaves are produced continuously for many weeks. As a bonus, this encourages the plant to produce more leaves, and delays the flowering process.

The best method for drying sage

The intention of drying sage is to preserve it by removing the water, but without losing the natural oils that give it its flavor. Sage, like most herbs, is best dried naturally, without using artificial heat. This will help to retain the natural oils better.

Trying to dry herbs by raising the temperature (for example in the oven or microwave) may dry them quicker, but will lead to the natural oils that give the herb its flavor being lost. This defeats the purpose of drying them, since they will be useless for flavoring foods.

If you have a dehydrator then this can be used for drying sage, however it is not necessary. If you don’t have a dehydrator, there are two basic methods for drying sage:

1. Dry between sheets of paper or parchment
2. Dry hanging bunches

Drying sage on paper

Parchment paper is ideal for drying herbs the type of paper you use is important, coated baking papers or waxed papers will not work. Paper towels can also be used.

All you need to do is lay the sage leaves in a single layer between two sheets of parchment and leave undisturbed, until they have fully dried out.

It is important that the air can circulate while the sage is drying, so don’t cover it with anything other than the parchment paper.

I normally dry sage in batches, using a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and another sheet of parchment on top.

When the sage has been spread on the drying paper, it needs to be placed in a warmish dry location until the water is gone from the leaves.

I find that high up in my kitchen is a good location, so I place the drying tray on top of my kitchen cupboards. It is warm all day long, though doesn’t get too hot. As a bonus because it is high up out of the way of our daily family chaos it is less likely to be disturbed!

How to dry sage bundles

If you have a lot of sage to dry then hanging it in bunches is a good technique to use.

All you need to do is cut sections of sage stem with 6 or so leaves, and tie it into small bunches of 4-6 stems with twine around the stalk. Then hang the bunches upside down in a warm dark place where they wont be disturbed. You can also place the bunch inside a paper bag to keep it dark if you don’t have a dark place where you can hang it.

I find up high in my pantry is an ideal spot. You will likely find that it takes a little longer to dry the sage using this method compared to the method above, but if you have more than one tray’s worth of sage to dry then using the method above isn’t really practical for most of us.

Making rubbed sage vs ground sage

Rubbed sage is small pieces of sage leaves, whereas ground sage is a fine powder.

How to make rubbed sage

Once the sage has dried out, the leaves should crumble easily, leaving the stalks behind. This is how you make rubbed sage – crumbling the dried leaves by rubbing them between your fingers to remove the stalks.

You can speed up the process by placing the dried sage leaves into a (dry) colander and rubbing the leaves against the bottom so that the rubbed sage falls through onto a clean tray or large bowl. You should just be left with the stalks in the colander, which can then be discarded.

How to make ground sage

If you want to make ground sage, once it has been rubbed and the stalks removed, transfer the sage into a mortar and use pestle to grind it down into a fine powder.

Storing dried sage

Dried sage should be stored in air-tight containers such as glass jars and kept in a cool, dark place. See this article for more details: how to store dried herbs.