After the corn is bone-dry it should, like all other vegetables and fruits, be conditioned.  This means to pour them from one bag or box to another, once a day for three or four days.  This enables you to notice any moisture that may be left in the dried food.  Foods that show any traces of moisture should be returned to the drying tray for a short time.

Notice Lima beans particularly, as they require a longer conditioning period than most vegetables.

After the conditioning, in order to kill all insects and destroy all eggs, it is advisable to place the vegetables on trays and heat them in an oven for half an hour at a temperature of 140 degrees Fahrenheit.  Store directly from the oven.

Dried vegetables are stored just as are dried fruits—­in cans, cracked jars that cannot be used for canning, fiber containers, cheesecloth, paper bags or paraffin containers.

In storing your dried products keep in mind these things:  Protection from moisture, insects, rats, mice, dust and light.  If you observe all these things it is unnecessary to have air-tight containers.

All varieties of string beans can be dried, but only those fit for table use should be used.  Old, stringy, tough beans will remain the same kind of beans when dried.  There are two ways of preparing string, wax or snap beans for drying: 

1.  Wash; remove stem, tip and string.  Cut or break into pieces one-half to one inch long; blanch three to ten minutes, according to age and freshness, in steam; cold-dip.  Place on trays or dryer.  If you have a vegetable slicer it can be used for slicing the beans.

2.  Prepare as above, then blanch the whole beans.  After cold-dipping, thread them on coarse, strong thread, making long “necklaces” of them; hang them above the stove or out of doors until dry.

Lima beans should be shelled from the pod and then blanched two to five minutes if young and tender.  If larger and more mature blanch five to ten minutes.

Okra is blanched for three minutes.  If the pods are young and small, dry them whole.  Older pods should be cut into quarter-inch slices.  Small tender pods are sometimes strung on stout thread and hung up to dry.

Peppers may be dried by splitting on one side, removing the seed, drying in the air, and finishing the drying in the dryer at 130 degrees Fahrenheit.  A more satisfactory method is to place peppers in a biscuit pan in the oven and heat until the skins blister; or to steam them until the skin softens, peel, split in half, take out seed, and dry at 110 to 130 degrees.  In drying thick-fleshed peppers like the pimento, do not increase heat too quickly, but dry slowly and evenly.

Small varieties of red peppers may be spread in the sun until wilted and the drying finished in the dryer, or they may be dried entirely in the sun.

Peppers often are dried whole.  If large they can be strung on thread; if small the whole plant can be hung up to dry.