The weather is good, the house is quiet, and somehow you’ve ended up with more strawberries than you can reasonably eat.

So I decided to try something new.

A while ago, I bought a food dehydrator, but I had never really used it.

Drying strawberries had been on my list for quite some time, and this felt like the perfect opportunity.

Half of the strawberries went in just as they were. The other half received a light sprinkling of sugar.

After that, there was nothing left to do but wait.

After about 24 hours, the whole house slowly began to smell of strawberries.

A warm, sweet scent that lingered in the air like the middle of summer.

Every time I walked past the kitchen, I found myself checking on them.

The result was surprisingly good.

The strawberries without sugar developed a sweeter, slightly tangy flavour, while the sugared version stayed a little softer and sweeter.

It’s probably not something I’ll do again anytime soon — mostly because they disappeared much faster than they took to make.

But for an afternoon with nowhere particular to be, it turned out to be a surprisingly enjoyable little experiment.

And honestly, the smell alone was almost worth it.

As a topping for cupcakes, yoghurt, or perhaps even white chocolate, they work surprisingly well. The sweetness adds a lovely contrast.