Friday, October 11, 2013

Drying and fruit leather.

We are continuing with our harvesting and storing.    Now the freezers and jars are nearly full we are concentrating on drying.
Apple and pear rings drying over our wood stove

Harvested this week;   Walnuts and almonds -- a good crop this year, they need to be dried in their shells for eating later.
Our almond harvest

Beans; about 5 different types (including Lima beans which are like butter beans) for drying and storing.
Apples and pears for storing and drying, we are making apple and pear rings this year as the apple rings were really successful last year, lasting for at least a year and useful in baking when cut into small pieces.
The pears were best made into rings straight from the tree when they are still hard and sweet.   The smaller pieces of apple and pears from damaged fruit were cut into small pieces and dried in the solar dryer.
We did lots of fruit leather this year.   Cooking the fruit and spreading it thinly onto non stick baking sheets, drying in a low temperature oven or in the solar dryer.
Apple fruit leather drying

We tried;
raspberry and apple - good,
plum - good,
blackberry and apple - good
blackberry and pear - difficult to dry as it was quite runny.
We are using the leather in many ways; cut into small pieces in baking and cereals or just to eat as sweets.