Drying Fruit

Now that it's harvest time in our orchard, it was time to bring out our fruit dryer, another left-behind gift from the Clausens. It's basically just a set of 9 screen shelves with an electric heater and a fan to blow the hot air over the fruit.


Plums in the dryer. The plums took about 24 hours to fully dry into chewy goodness.


Granny Smith apples in the dryer. The apples only took 6-8 hours before they were ready.


Plums on a rack, before going into the dryer. We split the plums in half, removed the stone, and pushed the flesh inside out so that the skin was concave. I estimate that we dried somewhere around 300 plums (600 halves)!


Dried plums. They sure do lose a lot of their volume in the drying process, but that is what helps to concentrate their flavor. Yes, you could call these prunes and not dried plums, but then the California Dried Plum Board might come knocking on your door.

Oh, and one last thing: Dried fruit gives you gas. Bad gas. Particularly the plums. But it's kinda like eating lots of garlic... as long as everyone around partakes, it's okay.

- Mike (& Corinne)