Tom here with Stone Soup.

Isn’t it amazing how one jalapeno plant can produce so many peppers? Don’t have enough storage space to keep dozens of jars of pickled peppers? How about that last bunch of tomatoes?

This time of year, most of us aren’t picking prize winning slicers off the vine however, there may be a few stragglers that we still want to preserve. This is why I love my food dehydrator. It is the simplest way to preserve oodles and oodles of veggies for a fraction of the storage space and prep time.

Wash veggies thoroughly
For slicers tomatoes: Slice tomatoes 1/4 inch thick
For jalapenos: Slice 1/4 inch thick
For cherry tomatoes: slice tomatoes in half
Place on food processor tray
Dry until all moisture has evaporated but, not until burt
Place in zip bags or jars
Store in cool dry place until ready to eat

The food dehydrator reduces 1 t-shirt bag of jalapenos (Wal Mart bag) to about 2 sandwich bags. Tomatoes are reduced at an even greater rate.

I find the dried tomatoes work well in Italian dishes. We also use them to make kiesh and other baked dishes. The jalapenos can be used to spice up any dish. I use them in chili, spaghetti sauce, etc.