- Harvest time determined by the active ingredient concentration
- Prepare flowers for drying
- Dry the marigolds gently
- Oven, microwave and co.
- Dry marigolds come in a dark screw-top jar
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The marigold is a busy flowering plant. If a few of the flowers are picked, it hardly detracts from the great sight. The orange heads are easy to dry. They preserve both the color and their healing properties.
Marigolds should be dried gently so as not to destroy the ingredients
Harvest time determined by the active ingredient concentration
Harvest timing plays when drying marigolds, bot. Calendula, a key role. You can only get flowers with a maximum of active ingredients and a good aroma if you observe the following instructions:
- freshly opened flower heads are ideal
- harvest on a rain-free day
- blazing sun affects the marigold
- therefore use the first hours of the morning for the harvest
tips
The delicate petals are sensitive to pressure. Therefore, place the harvested marigolds very carefully in a basket. Don't stack too many buds on top of each other.
Prepare flowers for drying
- Take a closer look at each flower.
- Discard any damaged and unhealthy looking buds.
- Check whether small bugs are still hiding in the flowers. Gently shake the flowers to make them fall out.
Dry the marigolds gently
The best way to turn fresh marigolds into the dried variety is to leave them out in the open air for a few days.
- Spread out on kitchen paper or wire rack
- in a dark and warm place
- the air must be able to circulate well
Depending on the size of the flowers, the drying process can be completed after just a few days.
Oven, microwave and co.
Marigolds are mostly used to make tea. A dehydrator can also be used as an alternative to air drying. Both methods preserve a large part of the valuable ingredients.
If the flowers are only used as decoration, they can also be dried in the microwave for about two minutes. An oven heated to 50 degrees is also suitable for drying.
When drying in the oven and microwave, however, it is difficult to wait for the right time. Here the degree of drying must be checked in between.
Dry marigolds come in a dark screw-top jar
Touch the dry marigolds with your hand. If they feel like tissue paper, they're dry. Only then may you collect the marigolds and store them in a sealed place.
Marigolds must be kept in the dark so that the good quality is maintained until they bloom again the following year.
The garden journal freshness ABC
How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?
The garden journal freshness ABC as a poster:
- as a free PDF file to print out yourself