I have a cuban oregano plant which I want to use for cooking.

For anyone not familiar with this plant, it is a very juicy fuzzy oregano...it almost seems like a succulent to me, it's so juicy.

Take a look at the picture:

http://www.rootgrafix.com/herbalnexus/p_cubano.htm

My question is, when serving this in food, should I use it fresh or dried? How would I dry it without it molding?

Spanish Thyme and/or Cuban Oregano

http://www.mountainvalleygrowers.com/pleamboinicus.htm

Well It surely isn't any juicier than say grapes, and I sun dried grapes to make raisins.

Here is an Idea:

I made drying racks out of 2 x 2 pine, "L" shped brackets and nylon window screen stapled along the sides, sort of like a drum.

I started with 4 of them, each was about 18 inches on a side. They fit nicely over one another. I set the first one supported at the corners with bricks on a table out in the sun. I spread out a single layer of, in my case, grapes. Then I set another screen over them. the two inches of space kept the top screen off of grapes.

I also dried out my garlic that I sliced thinly, I was able to stack all four of my screens together, leaving the top one as a top.

I would assume that the stems Judging by the picture these contain the most water) will not be used, so you cold dry just the leaves, a small batch at a time would work.

When it comes to drying things there are just a few things to remember:

Air flow If you want something to dry out, make certain air can get to all or most of the surfaces.

Dry conditions As long as it isn't foggy, dewy or raining, things will dry. They do not require direct sunlight, in fact direct sunlight can tend to cook some things -

Testing Since you are not using one of those pretimed drying devices, you have to be willing to sacrifice a small portion of the crop to testing, this means taking out a leave, testing it for dryness. Most leaves will become leathery first, then become hard.

If you are stacking trays, remeber to restack often I discovered that by switching the order of the racks as things dried tended to speed up the drying process a bit.

There are, at your local library, many books on drying and preserving foods. I found some really good ones, older books with sage advice.

I actually use the library as a testing ground before buying books. I have discovered that checking out a book first, reading it, and trying it a few times costs less than buying a book from a cursory glace in the book store.

I have also discovered that Barnes and Noble and a few other book retailers can often find older titles if you take a copy of the book to them.

Cheers

David