Drying Times...

Cherries have been on sale here...in fact, I've never seen cherries at the low prices they are this year!  Since they normally run about $5 a pound, we don't put them up very often.  This year has been a treat and I've been buying and canning them.  Yesterday I decided to dry some, something that I've never had the luxury of doing before because of their high cost.  The first step in drying them is cutting them in half and removing the pits.  I have a cherry pitter, but since they need to be sliced anyway, I did them all by hand.  Next time I'll wear rubber gloves, since my hands are still stained today.

Once dried they look like this...and they taste wonderful!  I can't wait to put some in oatmeal or a batch of granola...

Next through the dehydrator was a batch of tomatoes that I picked from the garden this morning...

I haven't canned any tomatoes yet this year, but I'm drying them at least twice a week.  I thinly slice the larger ones, and the cherry tomatoes are just cut in half.  These keep for over a year once dry.

I also picked a bunch of peppers, these are a mixture of sweet and hot peppers...once dried I'll rough chop them in the food processor to make pepper flakes that I add to soups, stews, and sauces.

With all this strange weather we've had strange bugs in the yard.  We're really having problems with Mason Wasps, my doe Faith has more than 20 stings from them!  Apparently they are attracted to white, because they are constantly getting in the milking parlor and yesterday I was stung by one while wearing a white shirt.  We've also spotted a couple of colorful dragonflies and today I got a picture of this cute little guy.  I think he looks like he's wearing sunglasses and smiling...

And I had to share this...my daughter picked out a couple of bantam chicks at the feed store earlier this year.  The one that she decided to keep as a pet is a Japanese Bantam rooster and he's learning to crow.  I think he sounds like someone is stepping on him.  You be the judge.