Dry Your Own Fruits and Vegetables

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Don't waste dryer time on hot peppers; string 'em on thread and hang in the sun on the porch or in fly-deterring cheesecloth bags from the barn rafters. Blanch whole bell peppers for one minute, skin, halve, and remove pulp and seeds. Then dice and put in the dryer. As you know if you cook Oriental dishes, mushrooms dry and refresh beautifully. Unless you keep yer own 'shroom cellar, the cultivated variety is hardly worth the bother, but if you are a knowledgeable wild-fungus hunter, sprinkle 1/2"-thick slices or dices of well-brushed mushrooms with salt, and leave till water runs out. Press out remaining water and dry till they shrivel. After refreshing the 'shrooms with water, you can enjoy their earthy flavor in teas, stews, eggs, and soups for months. Celery stalks dry to nothing but string, but the leafy heads retain their stew-flavoring tang if you dry them after dipping them briefly in boiling water. Do the same with parsley, basil, and other leafy pot-herbs that don't hold their strength or color when they're air-dried hanging from the porch roof. I tried blanching and drying split flowerettes and peeled stem rounds of broccoli, but it didn't reconstitute to a very tasty product. I've never dried summer squash, spinach, scallions, or other salad veggies. Nor have I dried onions, garlic, winter squash, or potatoes and other good keeping vegetables. But it can be done.

To refresh any vegetable, soak in several changes of cool water till it has regained most of its live size. Discard the water. Use in any recipe that requires long, slow cooking. An all-dried vegetable soup makes a complete meal — especially when simmered with beans or dried meat.

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