Friday Favorite: Preserving the Harvest
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.
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.
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.
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Our front door isn’t very becoming, in fact, I’m always trying to think of ways to kind of hide it or cover it up. This year, I decided a climbing vine would be perfect. I had a pack of morning glory seeds and they were perfect, though they are a heat loving vine so they took a LONG time to get going. Perhaps something that can take the cold would be a better option. Something perennial would be even better, but I don’t want to make that much of a commitment yet.
I quite like having something scrambling up over the door and providing some color and distraction. I’m thinking that next year I’m going to try the Firecracker vine (Ipomoea lobata), I even picked up seed recently. There’s a native wisteria in a pot that I got earlier this summer that I’ve also been contemplating planting there. It’s definitely something I want to do now that I’ve tried.
What’s your favorite flowering vine?
