Cherries! $1.99 lb

I found a deal at the grocery store. I got a couple pounds of these wonderful summertime fruits. I have to check the calendar just to make sure we didn't fast forward out of winter, skip spring and ended up in summer.

Everything is ok, it's only February, although you may think its April with the weather we have had!

I pitted these babies and into the food dehydrator they go.

I have made a habit of buying produce while in season and on sale (but I can't explain the in season idea with these cherries, it must be cherry season in some other part of the world) and drying them. I have mushrooms for stroganoff, stir fry, or pizza. There's kale for yellow pea sausage soup, tomatoes for lots of things and pizza. These get carefully rationed. It is so nice to know its dried and I don't need to make a trip for a special veg. For soup night. Note the mention of liquid, soup. reconstituting the dried veggies in a bowl of warm water is recommended if the dried morsels aren't going in a soup. I even dried all of our last harvest of banana and green peppers.

Mostly I have mentioned veggies. Dried fruit gets gobbled up before I can be clever with it. I hope to make a few batches of muffins with these cherries. This way they will keep nice for when I have the time to bake.

I store all the dried veg and fruit in glass mason jars with tight lids. Check on them, if they move when shook they are doing good, beware of moisture.

Happy February all, only two months to go until we see some sunny beaches of Florida. I'll keep you posted for that!
K