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Friday Favorite: Preserving the Harvest

October 2nd, 2015

Our apple trees are loaded with fruit this year, there are so many we could never eat/use/preserve them all. Luckily, we have friends that can use some and they have been. We’ve been eating them out of hand and I’ve been making applesauce and dried apple slices. We’re hoping to make cider next weekend as well.
Dried apples 2
Dried apples 1
One of the things I love about dried apples is that they store in the pantry, there’s not much work involved in prepping them. I simply core and slice each apple into 8 sections, yes I leave the peels on. They are layered onto racks in my oven and set to dry at 150 degrees until dry and leather, usually 6-8 hours depending on how full the oven is.
Dried apples 3
I love using my oven as to dry things because it fits so much more than a dehydrator. A few years ago, I purchased extra racks so I could fill it completely. This batch produced 3 half gallon jars filled with dried apple slices. Mr Chiots will certainly appreciate them for delicious and healthy treats during the winter. I’m not a huge fan of dried apples, well of apples in general. I do love dried pears however, which reminds me I need to read up on pears this winter because I’ll be planting pear trees in the spring.

Do you dehydrate any fruit? What’s your favorite.

6 Comments to “Friday Favorite: Preserving the Harvest”
  1. Nebraska Dave on October 2, 2015 at 10:34 am

    Susy, Hmmmm, never tried or thought to use the oven. I always thought leaving the oven on for hours would run up the utility bills. The low heat of 150 wouldn’t really be using much I suppose. I don’t use the oven much so I’d have to see if it even worked any more. It didn’t heat too well the last time I used it. It’s a 50 year old oven from the 1960s. I think it probably needs a new heating element on the bottom. The top element still works good but I’m not sure that would not be good for drying out fruits.

    Have a great fruit drying day.

    Reply to Nebraska Dave's comment

  2. KimH on October 2, 2015 at 9:46 pm

    Back before the days of microwaves.. my mom used her oven to make dehydrated goods & fruit leather. Great memories they are..

    I love love love dehydrated watermelon.. Oh my gosh.. its like a piece of sugary heaven.. You dont want to slice them thin… they shrink a lot. yum yum yum. One other bit of advice in regards to them.. if your melon has a funky off taste.. it will be more so when dried.

    I also love to make dehydrated bananas.. I dip mine in lemon juice before I put them on my trays.. Yum!

    Reply to KimH's comment

  3. Tom Wolfe on October 2, 2015 at 11:50 pm

    Bananas! Whole!

    Reply to Tom Wolfe's comment

  4. Kevin on October 3, 2015 at 3:08 am

    I have yet to get into preserving, but I have a lot of tomatoes ripening right now so this post was great. Thanks a lot for sharing and enjoy those apples ;)

    Reply to Kevin's comment

  5. Tom ~ Raise Your Garden on October 3, 2015 at 7:34 am

    What a great idea, drying your apples. We have never tried to dehydrate anything but would like to do strawberries in season. Any fruit sounds yummy. We have an awesome apple tree this year that is doing wonderful as well.

    Reply to Tom ~ Raise Your Garden's comment

  6. Mandie on October 10, 2015 at 7:38 am

    My family still live on the family farm, which is now mostly hay, corn, Timothy, and beef cattle. I was wandering through the cow pasture last weekend and came across what I thought was a small Apple tree – one little, round green fruit came off in my hand and I bit it….it was a pear!! I don’t think I’ve been that excited in ages! My dad didnt realize it was a pear tree either, I’m so,excited to go and pick pears to preserve!!

    Reply to Mandie's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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