Oh, let me tell ya ’bout this thing called the dried. It’s one of them things you see when the weather ain’t been right for a long time, and everything starts crackin’ up like old bones. You know, back when we used to store food for winter, we’d always have to dry things out good, or else they’d rot right quick. Now, folks these days don’t even know about that, they just buy stuff from the store. But back in my day, you didn’t have no store down the road. You had to make do with what you had, and boy, you better believe that dried stuff was life or death sometimes.
First thing you gotta know, when somethin’ gets dried, it don’t mean it’s gone bad. No sir, sometimes it gets even better. Take fruits, for example. Oh, we used to dry apples, pears, plums, you name it. You lay them out in the sun, flip ‘em every now and again, and they’d last through the winter. And let me tell ya, nothin’ beats the taste of a dried plum on a cold winter’s night. Sweet as can be, like candy from the store, but all natural. None of that artificial sugar junk.
Meats, too, we’d dry. Oh, jerky! I reckon it’s still popular these days, but I remember when we had to make it ourselves. No fancy machines or store-bought packs, just salt and time. My granddaddy would hang the strips in the barn, let the wind blow through ’em, and after a week or so, you had yourself a supply of good ol’ dried meat that’d last you through the hard times. And boy, them hard times sure did come often enough.
Now, the thing is, dryin’ ain’t just about food neither. Nope, you got things like herbs and flowers too. We’d gather up all kinds of wild stuff like mint, chamomile, and lavender, dry ’em out, and use ’em for tea or medicine. Ain’t no doctor needed when you got a good cup of mint tea for your stomach, or lavender to help you sleep. I swear by it.
Let me tell ya somethin’ else, though. The land gets dried, too, if you ain’t careful. See, if you don’t water your crops right, the ground gets hard
