CHAPTER XXV

DRIED TRUCK

As a war measure the surplus vegetables in many city markets have been forced by the governments into large municipal drying plants.  Community driers have been established in the trucking regions and even itinerant drying machines have been sent from farm to farm drying the vegetables which otherwise would have gone to waste.

The drying of vegetables may seem strange to the present generation, but we are very young; to our grandmothers it was no novelty.  Many housewives even to-day prefer dried sweet corn to the canned, and find also that dried pumpkin and squash are excellent for pie making.  Snap beans often are strung on threads and dried above the stove.  Cherries and raspberries still are dried on bits of bark for use instead of raisins.

This country is producing large quantities of perishable foods every year, which should be saved for storage, canned, or properly dried.  Drying is not a panacea for the waste evil, nor should it take the place of storing or canning to any considerable extent where proper storage facilities are available or tin cans or glass jars can be obtained cheap.

For the farmer’s wife the new methods of canning are probably better than sun drying, which requires a somewhat longer time.  But dried material can be stored in receptacles which cannot be used for canning.  Then, too, canned fruit and vegetables freeze and cannot be shipped as conveniently—­in winter.  Dried vegetables can be compacted and shipped or stored with a minimum of risk.  String them up to the ceiling of the storeroom or attic.

A few apples or sweet potatoes or peas or even a single turnip can be dried and saved.  Even when very small quantities are dried at a time, a quantity sufficient for a meal will soon be secured.  Small lots of dried vegetables, such as cabbage, carrots, turnips, potatoes, and onions, can be combined to advantage for soups and stews.

In general, most fruits or vegetables, to be dried quickly, must first be shredded or cut into slices, because many are too large to dry quickly, or have skins the purpose of which is to prevent drying out.  If the air applied at first is too hot, the cut surfaces of the sliced fruits or vegetables become hard, or scorched, covering the juicy interior so that it will not dry.  Generally it is not desirable that the temperature in drying should go above 140 deg to 150 deg F., and it is better to keep it well below this point.  Insects and insect eggs are killed by the heat.

It is important to know the degree of heat in the drier, and this cannot be determined accurately except by a thermometer.  Inexpensive oven thermometers can be found on the market, or an ordinary chemical thermometer can be suspended in the drier.

Drying of certain products can be completed in some driers within two or three hours.  When sufficiently done they should be so dry that water cannot be pressed out of the freshly cut pieces, they should not show any of the natural grain of the fruit on being broken, and yet not be so dry as to snap or crackle.  They should be leathery and pliable.