When you live in the Mediterranean countryside you don't really need an herb patch in your garden or dried herbs in your kitchen, because most culinary herbs grow wild and many are perennial.
I do have an herb patch in my garden for convenience, though, and I grow rosemary, small- and large- leafed sage, two different types of thyme, marjoram, parsley, basil and oregano. Chamomile, mint, calamint, and borage grow in the wild just across our fence, and the area beside our barn is infested by laurels (for bay leaves). Apart from oregano, I didn't dry any herbs for years, until one spring day, when I was pruning the perennial herbs, and I suddenly thought what a shame it was that we mainly ate herbs in the warm seasons (you'll never, ever to catch me bundling up and going out with a flashlight at 6pm in the middle of winter to pick herbs for our dinner).
That year I dried rosemary, sage, thyme and marjoram by putting them on our bookshelves and ... forgetting about them. I ended up with four jars of ground, mixed, dried herbs. I had more than I needed that year, but I did discover that dry herbs can taste very good - not at all like the hay-flavored ones you buy in stores.
These days in springtime I only dry small quantities of rosemary and sage. We've grown used to the sight of wilting vegetation on our bookshelves for a couple of months a year, and are careful not to disturb it when we need a book. Sometimes, though, a few leaves will accidentally crumble away and this triggers the memory of my first house, in city abroad where I worked years ago: it had grey carpets, white walls, and minimalist black and white furniture. Not a speck of dust on the books, let alone drying herbs.
In some way I wasn't aware of, little by little over the years the cold, stark colors of the places I've lived have given way to warmer, richer tones, my bookcases have grown disorderly, and I've slowly acquired a taste for my own dry herbs. I really couldn't do without them now: I sprinkle them generously on focaccia, they are invaluable in winter soups, and they bring out all the flavor of polenta.
