I had some trouble with my herbs this year, and lots of stuff died at the seed stage. The result was that my only herbs this year are some sage, oregano, and rosemary that I bought from the store. Short of basil, these are my absolute favorite herbs, so I’m usually okay. Sage is a beautiful plant, with its big, green, silky leaves. Fresh oregano is a completely different, and wonderful, thing compared to dried oregano (which is its own wonderful thing).

The rosemary seems happy to simply grow and bush out. It’s never even thought about going to seed. Its growth rate is slow enough that it doesn’t threaten to outgrow the container either. But the sage and oregano grow like crazy and are constantly trying to flower—especially the oregano. I cut them back regularly and dry the herbs.

Incidentally, I have a ridiculous amount of dried sage and oregano, if you want some. Seriously, it’s way more than I can possibly use, but I have to keep cutting back the plants to prevent them from going to seed, so if you want some sage or oregano, bring a container to my house. You can probably have as much as you can use.

Here’s a nice pile of oregano, just cut, and a bread-pan full of sage leaves, picked from the stem and about to go into the toaster oven for drying. I use a toaster-oven because it’s got a keep-warm setting. I used an oven thermometer to determine where to put the dial to get a temperature of about 100-120 degrees, which is just barely hot enough to dry a batch of herbs in a day or so, but doesn’t cook them like would happen if I put them in the oven. The herbs dry better if they’re laid out flat, but with big batches, that’s too much of a hassle, so I just put them in a bread pan and turn them a few times by hand.

You can see in the photo above that some of the sage leaves have been munched on, which really surprised me, because sage is one of those strong-smelling and strong-tasting plants that is really pest-resistant. In fact, putting sage near other plants can keep pests away from them! So what could possibly be munching it?

The culprit! I found one of these little bugs on my oregano too. I thought it was a leaf and went to pick it. Imagine my surprise! Fortunately, I didn’t squish it. Now, I’ve had caterpillars eat my vegetables before, but never my herbs. And what kind of bug is a caterpillar at this time of year anyway? It’s quite a mystery to me, although I’m sure the answer is out there.

Here’s me with the full pan of picked leaves, ready to go to the dehydrator.