Thyme must be properly dried! This will save its properties!

Thyme, or thyme, is a perennial plant that is widely used in both medical and culinary recipes. Already dried and ready-to-use collection can be purchased at any pharmacy without any problem, but if you prefer to prepare it yourself, this article is created specifically for you. Today you will find out when to collect thyme, what conditions are necessary for its drying, and also how to store finished raw materials at home.

The correct billet will allow the thyme to further show all its useful qualities

Places of growth

First of all, you should find out where the thyme grows. In the wild, it is most often found in the forest zone;prefers dry sandy places and pine forests, where it grows on slopes, glades and fringes. Also it can be found on steppe meadows, dry rocky places, on rocks and even on the walls of dilapidated buildings.

Growing thyme massively and forming lush turf

This native plant comes from Southern Europe. Today, thyme is cultivated quite widely - it is grown in countries such as Greece, Bulgaria, France, Spain, Albania, Tunisia, Morocco, Hungary, Poland and Germany.

Collection of raw materials

Both for therapeutic and culinary purposes only the aerial part of the plant is used. So, when do you collect the thyme for drying? This process begins immediately after the shrub bloom.

If you cultivate thyme in your home garden and want to harvest raw materials in the planting year, the flowering period will fall on the last month of summer, and in some cases the flowers appear only the next year. Adult thyme blooms profusely and for quite a long time - scented inflorescences appear in May and bloom only in September.

A continuous carpet of flowering thyme is able to decorate any landscape

According to folk traditions, the best time for gathering thyme is two church holidays - the Assumption of the Virgin and the Trinity.

Note! It is believed that the plant, harvested these days, has special healing properties!

But this is provided that you collect thyme for medicinal purposes. If the reason for all the taste qualities of plants that find their use in cooking, then the collection and harvesting of thyme should be done before the flowering period, since in this case the essential oils that make up it will be preserved in full.

Basic rules

1. To collect thyme, you must use a sharp knife or scissors, which cut off the top of the shoots with leaves.
   

   Ensure that the base of the stem is not coarse and lignified

   Important! In no case should you break the plant with your hands or pull it from the root, otherwise it can lead to rapid destruction of the bush!

2. For further vegetative propagation of the plant, part of the turf must be left untouched.
3. Next year another place is selected for gathering raw materials - they return to the same site not earlier than in 2 years.

How does drying work?

So, how to dry thyme at home? Since special drying devices are not available in every household arsenal, the most commonly used drying is natural, in other words, solar. It occurs in the shade under the influence of heated air.

Note! Since in the drying process the plant loses moisture, its mass can be reduced by 60%.

As a rule, the flowers, leaves and stems of thyme are exposed to the workpiece, and the process is as follows:

1. Choose the device on which the raw material will be dried. This can be a tray, a sieve, a dense fabric or a sheet of tin.
2. Select the selected surface with paper and spread a thin layer of raw materials.
3. Dry thyme under a canopy or in a well-ventilated room with sufficient air movement, which will provide full ventilation, otherwise the raw material will begin to deteriorate and soon deteriorate.
4. The length of time that thyme should be held outdoors will depend on the duration of daylight hours and can range from 2 to 5 days.
5. To ensure uniform drying, it is recommended to periodically turn the raw material.
   

   Important! In bad weather, high humidity of air, and also at night, trays with thyme must be brought into the room. Otherwise, it will absorb moisture from the air!

6. As thyme is rich in essential oils, the air temperature should not exceed +35 ° C, otherwise these substances will evaporate, and the plant will lose a significant part of its value.
7. To ensure that the raw material is not contaminated by insects, sand and dust, it is covered with gauze or a fine mesh.

Correctly dried thyme will fully reveal its aroma and will not lose the healing power of

. The following signs indicate the end of the drying:

• leaves have acquired a darker color, but they did not lose their healthy green tint and became more rigid to the touch;
• stems completely lost elasticity and can easily be broken even with slight bending;
• leaves should separate from the stem easily and emit a slight rustling sound;
• flowers acquire a rigid structure and when compressed in the palm of their hands they are easily crushed.

Storage rules

So, the drying process is completed and now you should find out how to store the thyme.

1. Using a screen with large holes, the plant is sieved, separating and discarding stems.
2. Raw materials are packed in containers of glass or porcelain or scattered on linen bags or packaged on boxes of cardboard.
   

   Important! A layer of dried thyme in a container should not exceed 7 cm!

3. Store the plant in a dry place.

But despite the fact that the thyme is harvested in time and properly harvested, eventually its healing properties and effectiveness will decrease. Therefore, it is recommended to store it for not more than a year, and each new season to replenish the stock.