Drying Chives

Row of chives in raised bed

Several years ago I planted one chives plant in the raised bed, and now the bed is threatened by being overrun with them.  When Angela cleaned out the bed last week to weed the rhubarb that she planted last year I had her remove some of the chives and just leave one row.  That's still a lot of chives, so I cut some and dried them for future use.  Here's what I did.

I removed the flowering head and the lower part of the stem.  I used just the middle of the stems to cut with scissors into small pieces.

I placed the chives between two paper towels to remove the moisture.

When they were dry I stored them in a small jar.  Now we'll have chives at our fingertips whenever needed. 

We use chives, fresh when available, in lots of our recipes especially mashed potatoes and sauces to serve over fish.