Dried Herb Equipment Supplier
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: Larraine Zarmati
Posted on: March 23, 2007

I am a small herb farmer, just 1 acre, in California. I am interested in buying some equipment to help dry, grind and sift my herbs. I bought Richard Alan Miller’s first book, but it really was catered to the large scale farmer. I’m afraid his third book will also be too advanced for me and for $42, I don’t want to risk it. Is there any small herb farmer supplier you can refer me to? I’m having a hard time finding anyone on the Internet.

There is no "herb equipment" supplier that I can point you to. At your scale of operation you will need to adapt and modify equipment used for other purposes or make your own equipment. In many cases, simple handmade and hand-operated equipment can be very effective if you have the right designs.

I strongly recommend Greg Whitten’s book, "Herbal Harvest: Commercial Organic Production of Quality Dried Herbs" (available from Richters). This book has a lot of information on the kind of equipment you are looking for. Whitten realized that there is a wide range of growers with varying needs and abilities and so his book offers the widest range of ideas that I have seen in any printed resource on herb production. The cost of the book will be repaid many times over, that much I can assure you. There is a 44 page chapter on drying herbs and a 27 page chapter on processing dried herbs, with lots of discussion, drawings and photos on the various approaches both large and small producers are using to produce herbs.

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