HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi all! Went through a big batch of strawberries for Valentine's day and now have a ton of strawberry leaves (which I know crabbies love). Can anyone suggest a good method for drying or preserving the leaves for future crabsnacks? Thanks!

Hello,

If you have a dehydrator a low setting would work well. If you do not have one, you might be able to dry them in the oven on the lowest setting yours will go to, but be careful to check on them so that they do not burn. Dehydrators are nice, because they can get to low temperature like 120 to 150 degrees; which is ideal...most ovens do not go lower than 200 degrees...

Thanks for the response, Rebecca! I'd be using an oven. How long would you suggest I leave them in for? Are there any done-signs I should be looking for as I lightly bake them?

It is my pleasure to help if I can. I normally don't use the oven to dry leaves because they tend to burn, but I have done it. You want them to keep their color and become the texture of dry herbs. I worry about them burning so I would check on them maybe after about 30 minutes or so and then keep checking on them about every 15 minutes or so but I am not an expert in drying herbs in the oven...but I found this wonderful website for you: https://sanctuarygardener.wordpress.com ... -the-oven/

After reading through it, it seems like a great source.

The only thing I want to point out is that is that commercial strawberries are loaded in pesticides. The leaves would have absorbed most of that while growing. If they are organic it's nothing to worry about, but if they're regular strawberries then you should take that pesticide contamination into consideration.

Rebecca C wrote: I found this wonderful website for you: https://sanctuarygardener.wordpress.com ... -the-oven/

After reading through it, it seems like a great source.

This is a great website . Many thanks for the post, Rebecca C!