Top Photos (clockwise, left to right): Cayenne peppers.  Ground cherries.  San Marzano tomatoes. Red and Yellow Cherry tomatoes.

But drying... I’ve been doing it for 3 days now and I’m OBSESSED. Give me a good fruit or vegetable, and I’m game to try it!

I tried to sun dry.  I set out our ground cherries for one day about a week ago, and they started drying.  And then it rained... and it’s rained every single day since.  So I’ve been oven drying.  I’m not in love with the energy it consumes, but it’s very low heat, we don’t have heat on in the house, and I think canning would also require a fair amount of energy, if I understand it right.  Next year I’ll know that around now it gets rainy, and I’ll start the sun drying earlier!

Sun drying. 

1. 1.  Pick your ripe fruits/veggies. 
   

2. 2.  If they’re small, you don’t have to cut them.  If they’re roma tomatoes, I cut them in half.  If they’re round tomatoes, I cut them into slices about 3/4” to 1” thick in the fleshy part, and 1/2” on the top and bottom parts of the tomato (the ends take longer to dry). 
   

3. 3.  Set them side by side on a pastry drying rack, or a screen of some kind - but it must be elevated above the surface so that air can get to both top and bottom.  For sliced tomatoes, it seems to work better to start with the butt end down. Note: several sources say that it’s better to use a non-metal screen, as metal reacts with the acids in the fruit and changes the flavor.  I haven’t noticed this, though.
   

4. 4.  For sliced tomatoes, sprinkle a little salt on each tomato - it makes them dry faster.
   

5. 5.  Bring the rack inside when the sun goes down, or when it begins to get moist in the evening (whichever comes first).
   

6. 6.  Put them outside again the next day when the weather gets warm, and repeat #4 & 5 for as long as it takes - up to 10 days.
   

7. 7.  Store in an air-tight container or bag.
   

Oven drying.

1. 1.  Pick your ripe fruits/veggies. 
   

2. 2.  If they’re small, you don’t have to cut them.  If they’re roma tomatoes, I cut them in half.  If they’re round tomatoes, I cut them into slices about 3/4” to 1” thick in the fleshy part, and 1/2” on the top and bottom parts of the tomato (the ends take longer to dry). 
   

3. 3.  Set them on a pastry drying rack, or if you don’t have one I’ve found that you can use a cookie sheet with parchment paper (though this takes a bit longer).  We put our cookie sheet on top of our baking stone, and that seems to speed the drying process a bit.
   

4. 4.  For sliced tomatoes, sprinkle a little salt on each tomato - it makes them dry faster.
   

5. 5.  Put them in the oven, to around 200 degrees (less is ok, but no higher than this!!).  Prop the oven open about 2” with a rolled up cloth, to let steam out - very important.
   

6. 6.  Set the timer - don’t forget this step!  Set it for 1 hour initially, then every 30 to 45 minutes.
   

7. 7.  Each time the timer goes off, take out any fruits that are dry.  They should not be crisp, but you should not see any juice. Anything raisin sized should be the consistency of a raisin. Tomatoes should be leathery.  Chilis should be pretty stiff.
   

8. 8.  Let them cool for an hour or two.
   

9. 9.  Store in an air-tight container or bag.
   

(Note:  Put the correct date on them also - I dated all my bags with last week’s dates... I think I’ve been drying a little too much!).

What I’ve dried so far (leaving out the failed “experiments”):

1. 1.  Cayenne peppers - 2.5 trays.
   

2. 2.  Ground cherries: 1 tray - 1/2 husked, 1/2 with husks still on.
   

3. 3.  San Marzano tomatoes:  1 tray.
   

4. 4.  Early Girl tomatoes:  4 trays... and still going.
   

5. 5.  Red and Yellow Cherry tomatoes: 1 tray.
   

6. 6.  Red and yellow peppers:  1/4 tray.
   

*UPDATE (10/20/07):  A couple of good links...

Great article on Low Energy Food Preservation by Susan from Casaubon’s Book

After writing my post yesterday, I got to thinking maybe I would get my butt in gear and start canning this year afterall.  Susan’s post (and Mike’s post at Plan Be that brought me there!) made me rethink that idea.  I might try pickling first....  Freezing is out, since we have a tiny fridge, and I’ve completely filled the freezer with green beans and summer squash.  We’re planning to store root vegetables in the ground, and winter squash in the garage.  Our drying beans aren’t ready yet, but we’ll let them dry on the vines (if the rain lets up long enough!) and then store them.  Our mystery citrus should be ripening in the next month or two - once we find out what they are, we’ll decide what to do with them.  And we plan to grow leafy greens all winter long. 

We’re at the tail end of apple season here - I may pick up a few and jar some for the winter.  We can use that as a substitute for our lack of berry jam, which we haven’t made and can’t find locally (That is, we can’t find reasonably priced organic local jam that isn’t full of sugar and corn syrup!).

National Center for Home Food Preservation

Just discovered it and haven’t had a chance to peruse it yet.