A week of drying fruit...

...and this is what we yielded. Not too terribly much considering the hours and cost involved, but I'm hoping we can do another round with fruit I buy in Eastern Washington on my trip at the end of the month.

I'm heading east to Quincy, where I discovered an amazing dried bean resource. Central Bean in Quincy has "Food Alliance Certified" beans starting at $15 for 25 pounds. That's a whole lotta beans! Apparently the "Food Alliance Certified" refers to the way the beans are grown, including limited sprays, crops grown in wheat fields to prevent erosion of the soils, and paying fair wages to farmers. I can get behind that!

While I was on with the nice lady from Central Bean, I asked her if she happened to know of any tomato farmers near her. Boy, does she! She gave me two great leads, and while I'm in Quincy, I'll be buying 65 pounds of tomatoes for the remainder of our canning needs at $.80 a pound! I'm excited for my little road trip, and while I'm there, I might try to stock up on other local fruits and veggies for canning and freezing purposes. But in the mean time, I must start packing for....



That's right--Dan and I are heading to Israel on Sunday for a business trip. I'll be posting while I'm there, looking at what local is in Tel Aviv. :)