Drying Bay Leaves

A short while ago, another student at Sunnyside Herbal Medicine brought a big bag of bay leaves to class to share.

These were fresh green trimmings from her own bay laurel tree (Laurus nobilis, Lauraceae). How kind of her to share!

So I brought my trimmings home and discovered a problem: I don't live in my dream home with the little wood stove over which I can hang herbs to dry with ease.

(image from The Herb Companion)

Oh yeah. Tiny apartment, I remember now.

Worse yet, this tiny apartment has a bizarre ability to be humid ALL the time. Seriously, if someone walks in with glasses on, chances are good that the glasses will fog up simply by crossing the threshold. 

In the time I have lived here, I have found no way to alleviate this issue, especially not on cold nights that disallow proper ventilation.

Getting back to the bay leaves: a humid environment is the opposite of what is required for drying leaves.

The solution:

I hung the trimmings to my lamp! The lamp is next to the the floor heater in the front room, and perfectly situated to keep the trimmings in the dryest, hottest section of air in the apartment!

To strap the branches to the lamp, I used some scrap yarn sitting in an almost-forgotten section of my craft section (Acrylic yarn? Um, that is NOT suitable for knitting!) No real knots, just simple loops to keep them in place. 

I spaced the ends of the sticks as far apart as I could make them to better allow airflow among the leaves.

And it worked! It took a few weeks, maybe three, before it really got fully dry. Honestly, I could have taken it down quite some time ago, but I wanted to get them as dry as possible.

The only thing I could say didn't work so well was that the leaves at the top took much longer than those closer to the ground to dry. The leaves at the bottom have been ready for a WHILE.

So now I need to figure out what to do with all these leaves. Ha!

• Bay has astringent, carminative, diaphoretic, digestive, diuretic, emetic, and stomachic properties.
• Making a poultice of bay leaves is supposed to help the discomfort of stinging nettles. 
• Similarly, the oil is used externally for bruises and sprains, and general aches and pain (especially that associated with rheumatoid arthritis).
• The lauric acid keeps moths, and other bugs away. Not so much an issue right now, but in summer, I'll see about hanging these again by the door to deter buggies from entering.
• Bay leaf helps the body process insulin. Good for high blood sugar and diabetes.
• Bay was used in the middle ages to help cause abortions. Need more info on this! Not planning on causing any abortions, but it would be good to know if bay is contraindicated during pregnancy.
• Bay helps headaches, including migraine headaches.
• According to Ayurveda, an upset stomach is helped by drinking bay tea after dinner. Make this tea by boiling 1/2 teaspoon of crushed or ground bay leave in a cup of water for 10 minutes, straining the leaves, and adding a pinch of cardamon. Recommended for all three dosha types.
• Bay is powerful against bacteria and is particularly good at preventing tooth decay. Toothpastes may have bay oil in it. I will have to research whether chewing the leaves will have a similar effect. Also, will having bay tea after a meal have similar effects? Or even cooking with it?
• Bay also have many bactericidal constituents and can be used in deodorant. I'll have to research more to see if my dried leaves can be used in a home-made deodorant.

What a wonderful herb to have my pantry!

While waiting to be used as medicine, these bay leaves will definitely lose some numbers to pots of delicious Split Pea Soup!  Ooh, that's the stuff.