For those new to eating locally and/or seasonally, one question inevitably comes up: what do I do with the excess bulk of an ingredient that I have grown, or that I found a good deal on during its peak season?
If it is something like any of the variety of peppers, then the answer is to dry them so you can use them all year long.
Personally, I grew peppers in pots on the porch all spring and summer long. Every time the peppers ripened, I harvested them using a pair of gardening shears and keeping them stems and peppers intact.
Now, the oven in my apartment has a setting called “warm,” which is used to keep dishes warm while the rest of the meal is being cooked and/or eaten. I have co-opted this oven setting for drying my peppers. After I harvest at least half a dozen peppers, I wash them and let them dry on paper towels. Then, I place them on a wicker picnic plate holder (you know, the things we used as kids to give the paper plates some support once food was they were laden with food), and I set the oven on warm.
After 3-4 hours, I check on how dry they have become, and I either leave them in for longer or turn the oven off. I like my peppers dry enough so that I can pinch the stem off with my fingers and crumble the whole pepper into a dish without having to use a knife to chop it. Then, I place the peppers in a jar with a lid and store them in my pantry, where I can access spicy peppers all year long, without worrying about whether or not the plants are bearing fruit or if they are in season.
Farm to Kitchen to Table 
What fantastic forethought. It seems that because of the wide and constant accessibility of food, we often forget that we have the ability to preserve what we cannot immediately eat, discarding and wasting various things which might be useful another day. I wonder what other items might be preserved via the process you’ve described.
I’d love to give this a go though it would require the purchase of some plants. The amaryllis on the kitchen windowsill is lovely but, I fear, not edible.