Cheryl wrote:
>
> What are your favorite spice mixes? It's that time of year again and I'm
> going to make up jars of spice mixes to go with Christmas gifts this
> year. I know I can't get some of the herbs locally fresh, but I can get
> the imported ones and dry them myself, such as some that go into Italian
> Seasoning. I just dried some parsley and basil because they were
> getting to the point to use them or lose them.

You can't make a spice mix from herbs... herbs are not spices... you
can make an herb blend. But you'd do much better to simply buy an
herb blend. Penzeys Italian herb blend is excellent and will cost
less than drying fresh herbs (you'd need to buy a lot of fresh herbs
to fill a tiny jar with dried), plus you can't properly dehydrate
herbs at home with a home style dehydrater, you'll just waste them. A
pound of fresh herbs will yield about a half ounce of dehydrated,
because when you buy fresh herbs you're buying mostly stems. Even if
you grow your own herbs it really doesn't pay to dehydrate them. A
better way to store fresh herbs is to freeze them, even better is to
layer them in an airtight container between layers of kosher salt and
then freeze... I do that with the parsley I grow, and I can still use
the salt.

Using home type dehydrators after all is said and done you may as well
use shredded cardboard. With the wattage a home style dehydrator
consumes it's cheaper to buy dehy herbs.
http://www.amazon.com/Nesco-FD-1040-...rds=dehydrator
Commercial operations can achieve high quality yet keep prices down by
employing volume economics:
http://www.dryer.com/index.html

Personally I wouldn't gift people dehy herbs, especially not those
I've made myself. For one many people will put them away and forget
them, and many people are loathe to consume homemade food products
(personally I decline gifts of many homemade foods), I'll gladly
accept gifts of local honey and maple syrup but I'll politely decline
someones home canned garden produce. Were I so inclined to gift artsy
fartsy I would perhaps give homemade beeswax candles, then folks can
choose to use them or display them, but it's highly unlikely they will
toss them in the trash. I do gift people fresh garden produce, I even
trade with my neighbors, but I'm fussy about other peoples food prep.