With more coming out of our garden than we could put up or give away, My wife decided to dehydrate the vegtables we are harvesting. A unique mix I came up with from her "suitcase pantry" was a veggie trail mix for snacking on at work. Dried tomato chips, bell pepper, sweet onion, zuccini (seasoned) & jalapeno peppers for zing. Put a baggie full in a lab coat pocket and it reminds me what that paycheck is paying for all shift long. We have tried drying various strains of tomato, but so far the Roma win for best flavor.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 23, 2000

Answers

Lab coat??? From the sounds of it, I'd try to be careful I didn't reach into the wrong pocket, Jay!!! The snack sounds good, though. I'm curious as to what seasoning you used????

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), July 23, 2000.

The lab coats for static control around electronics (no rubber gloves around this neck of the woods). On to the important part, the zuccinni is difficult to dry and does seem to have a dull flavor when finished as a snack. What I did with the last trays was to dip the pieces in lemon juice and water and dusted with a little garlic powder. Seasoning is a personal choice, but use of the powders does seem to facilitate a faster dehydration. I like using the lemon juice as a salt substitute (also the high citric acid helps fight bacteria during processing

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 24, 2000.

You might try sprinkling them with a little cayenne pepper. They're yummy.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), July 24, 2000.

Since you already dry tomatoes, have you ever powdered them in your blender? I use tomato powder in alot of things. Makes a great soup base.

-- Kathy6 (DavidWH6@juno.com), July 24, 2000.

Powdered dry tomato sounds pretty convieniet. I bet it would make a great spagetti sauce too. Cyenne sprinkled zuccinni sounds good too, I just wouldn't want to mix it with dry jalapeno slices.

-- Jay Blair (jayblair678@yahoo.com), July 24, 2000.