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Anyone started drying forage for winter?

You can get a couple of tubers from places like Homebase and B&Q but once they're in they're really difficult to get out as they multiply. Hence why my friends on the plot don't care about me taking it!
 
You can get a couple of tubers from places like Homebase and B&Q but once they're in they're really difficult to get out as they multiply. Hence why my friends on the plot don't care about me taking it!

Excellent. I'd never have thought of them. I may pop a couple in and see. :)


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Ooh I got a big load of hoary and greater plantain today, washed and drying as we speak. Had to give the buns a fresh leaf each though. It's so hard to not give it to them... Their little faces, and bless them it's been at least an hour since their fenugreek crunchie so they must be starving.... Despite having an extra portion of treat hay, and a top up of long grass... I'm such a pushover!:roll:
 
Well, in the colder months I've just spread the leaves out on some newspaper and left them in the spare room to dry, just turning them over once or twice a day, the central heating seems to do the trick in a day or two, brambles are really quick to dry, but I find plantain can take a week!
Some people pop them in an airing cupboard, or in a very low oven for a short time, I think you have to keep a close eye on them in the oven.
On a warm day I've just spread them on newspaper on the garden table with a bit of mesh on top to stop them blowing away.
You'll know when there ready to store when they go crispy, if there not dry enough they may go mouldy in storage. I just mix all mine up in a cardboard box to store. I don't think it's recommended to store in plastic bags.
Try bramble leaves first, they are really easy, and don't shrink down to nothing like some leaves do. It never ceases to amaze me how huge a pile of forage shrinks down to a small handful of dried forage.
The buns love it in the winter months though, so it's worth the effort :thumb:
 
I either tie in bundles and hang up somewhere or lay them out on a sheet or something and turn then once or twice a day. After about 3-4 days they go crispy. I tend to dry bramble leaves and artichoke leaves as I have abundant supplies of both. I can never find a lot of plantain. My best source on the allotment got weedkillered :( so I buy a bag or two from the place where I buy my hay. Ditto for dandelions.

I found a couple of hawthorn bushes nearby so I'm going to cut a load of that soon and dry that as well. That gives me at least five different things for winter.
 
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