pod said: ...What I always find is when the herbs are dried enough, they loose their flavor and I'm disappointed.
Kristi, A couple of ideas for preserving intensity of flavor, some you might already know: Harvesting very early in the morning helps capture the aromatic oils which are released during the day as the sun becomes stronger. Instead of drying them out in the open, dry them in loose small bundles in brown paper lunch bags. I put them in upside down, bunch the top of the bag around the stems, secure bag & stems with string or a rubber band, then hang them anywhere in the house. I've read advice to make slits in the bags to allow air circulation, but in my climate I don't need to. One advantage to using bags is that if I don't get around to stripping and packaging the plants right away, they aren't excessively exposed to air and are protected from dust.
I have also found that the first harvest is always the best. Later summer harvests aren't bad, but I can tell the difference, and I frequently do late harvests anyway. My biggest challenge is the conflict between cutting off those first early buds and wanting to see that first burst of bloom!
