Want an easy way to store and preserve food? Need a food storage method that doesn’t take up much space and requires very little equipment? Want to make healthier snacks for your family to enjoy at home or on the go? Looking for portable food for camping or backpacking? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you should learn about home food drying.
Last week I got a call from my neighbor, Betty, about crabapples being ripe at another friends’ home. (Everyone should have a neighbor like Betty. 
Never one to let produce go to waste, I warned the boys that we were going to go pick crabapples. My eldest, wanting to get done sooner, headed out to the wild trees at the border of out field. These are normally so bug infested as to be inedible, but this year one had a bumper crop, and we were able to pick quite a few that were in nice shape.
My apple pickers.
I went picking over at the neighbor’s, too. Our apples were smaller, firmer and greener.
There’s were larger, softer and dead ripe. Just a bit past prime for canning whole, as they softened up and fell apart a bit during processing, but they were still delicious.
I canned the apples whole two ways – as honey cinnamon apples and and spiced apples.
Because the neighbor’s apples had been sprayed (not a lot, I was told, but still sprayed), I washed them first in water with a squirt of my non-toxic dish detergent, then rinsed them in water with white vinegar in it, them rinsed again with clean water (and took the water out after to water the flowers). I worked from right to left, soap wash, vinegar rinse, clean rinse and into the dish drainer.
Cut out the blossom end of the apple, but leave the stem intact. You don’t need to core the apple. Both of these recipes could be made with sliced apples, too, if you don’t have crabapples available. After removing the blossom end, poke the apple with a fork five times to allow even penetration of syrup.
Note: You want to prep all your canning equipment and syrup before you start cutting out the blossom ends, so you can get the apples in the syrup right away to minimize browning.
Apples can be canned in a water bath canner. For full instructions on water bath canning, I recommend the Ball Blue Book of Canning and Preserving. Canning equipment includes:
This recipe was inspired by the book Putting it up with Honey, where they feature instructions for apple slices canned with honey.
Ingredients
5 pounds whole crabapples (original recipe called for 15 pounds of apples, which were washed, cored, peeled and sliced)
1 1/2 quarts water
1 3/4 cup honey
3 cinnamon sticks
Directions
Prepare syrup by adding honey to water and heating until the honey is dissolved (this is a nice way to use crystallized honey straight from the jar). Add cinnamon sticks, simmer five minutes. Add apples (with blossom ends removed) to syrup. Simmer five minutes (just to heat through), you don’t want to overcook them, as they will cook more during processing. Apple skins will darken as they cook (think applesauce or baked apples).
Load hot apples into hot quart jars, fill with syrup to 1/2 inch headspace. Run you chopstick or small non-metallic spatula between the peaches and the jar to remove air bubbles (metal may scratch the inside of the jar). Add extra syrup if needed. Wipe rim clean, screw on lid (not too tight – air must escape during processing).
* Note: if using Tattler lids
Place jars on rack in canner. When all apples are packed (you should have 4-5 jars), lower jars into water. Make sure jars are covered by 1-2 inches of water. Bring to boil, process (boil gently) 20 minutes. (See peach post for photos of canning setup and jars in canner.)
When the cooking time is up, remove jars at once and place on a rack or on towels away from heat and away from any draft. If using Tattler lids, tighten rings as soon as they are removed from the water bath. This is not necessary for standard canning lids.
After 12-24 hours, check lids for seal. Standard lids should be concave in the center and held down tightly. Tattler lids should be snug if you try to pull them off. I love listening to the “ping” as the jars seal.
This recipe is from my neighbor, Betty, who has been making it for years.
Ingredients
60-65 whole crabapples (enough to fill 5-6 quarts – I used 70 apples ~ 6.5 pounds, because my apples were small)
9 cups water
1/2 cup vinegar
6 cups white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons whole cloves, placed in a spice bag
Directions
Prepare syrup by mixing all ingredients except apples and heating until the sugar is dissolved. Boil one minute. Add apples (with blossom ends removed) to syrup. Simmer five minutes (just to heat through), you don’t want to overcook them, as they will cook more during processing. Apple skins will darken as they cook (think applesauce or baked apples).
Load hot apples into hot quart jars, fill with syrup to 1/2 inch headspace. Run you chopstick or small non-metallic spatula between the peaches and the jar to remove air bubbles (metal may scratch the inside of the jar). Add extra syrup if needed. Wipe rim clean, screw on lid (not too tight – air must escape during processing).
* Note: if using Tattler lids
Place jars on rack in canner. When all apples are packed (you should have 4-5 jars), lower jars into water. Make sure jars are covered by 1-2 inches of water. Bring to boil, process (boil gently) 20 minutes. (See peach post for photos of canning setup and jars in canner.)
When the cooking time is up, remove jars at once and place on a rack or on towels away from heat and away from any draft. If using Tattler lids, tighten rings as soon as they are removed from the water bath. This is not necessary for standard canning lids.
After 12-24 hours, check lids for seal. Standard lids should be concave in the center and held down tightly. Tattler lids should be snug if you try to pull them off.
I finished with four quarts of honey cinnamon apples (and about eight apples I couldn’t squeeze into jar that I just put in the fridge) and six quarts of spiced apples. Honey cinnamon apples are to the rear and spiced are in front.
I ended up using our home apples for the spiced apples and Betty’s apples for the honey cinnamon apples. Our home apples were smaller, so more of them fit into a jar. I noticed that while the honey cinnamon apples were processing, they became quite soft (some of them fell apart a bit), so I decided to process the balance of the very ripe apples into apple sauce and fruit leather.
Apple sauce is super easy, especially when your apples are really ripe. Just place clean apples in a heavy bottom pot with enough water to cover the bottom of the pan so it doesn’t burn. Cook until mushy. I noticed my apples had a lot of liquid, so I put them in a colander to drain off some of the juice before processing further. (Save the juice in another bowl if you have an excess – it’s quite tasty.)
Employ child labor (if available) to turn crank on food strainer (my son loves turning the crank). Load the apples, turn the crank and you have applesauce.
We ended up with a big bowl of applesauce and nearly two quarts of juice.
If you don’t have a food strainer, you can peel and core apples and cook until soft, and them puree with a potato masher. This will give a chunkier sauce. A food mill or chinois will also work, but I really like my food strainer. Add a pinch of salt and a bit of maple syrup if you like (my apples were really sweet and tasty, so I skipped this).
To make fruit leather, oil your dehydrator’s fruit leather sheet with coconut oil or other neutral oil. Spread sauce uniformly over sheet, between 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Too thick and it will take a very long time to dry, too thin and it will be brittle instead of elastic. Dry at 135 F until leathery. I usually run my dehydrator overnight and it is done by morning. When dry, simply peel it off the sheets and store in a sealed container. You could refrigerate for longer shelf life, but it’s not necessary. Ours usually doesn’t last very long anyway.
That’s my first experience with crabapples. So far, so good. The honey cinnamon apples are sweet with just a hint of spice. I haven’t sampled the spiced apples yet, but they smelled good. To eat the apples, you just nibble them off the stem and core.
Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you enjoyed the post.
We purchased two cases of Michigan peaches so far this year – one from a local supermarket, and one from a roadside market up in Door County. I decided to can most of them, as the boys adore canned peaches. I also dried some in the dehydrator and make some peach jam. For canning peaches, use those that are ripe but still firm. I use the softer peaches for jam or drying.
Before canning or drying peaches, I remove the skins. The skins get really chewy after drying, and strangely slimy after canning, so I highly recommend this step.
First, prep a large pot of boiling water, a slotted spoon or other large scoop to remove the peaches from the boiling water, a basin to place them in to move them to the chilling water, and the peaches you want to process.
Next, prep your chilling and skinning area. I like to chill mine in my wash basin in the sink, gather the skins in an old yogurt container, and place the peeled peaches into a basin of water with a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice or a teaspoon of citric acid in the water to prevent browning.
Once the boys got going, I placed another basin of cold water in the second sink, and added additional “post peeling” bowls as well.
You may also want to prep your canning equipment at this time, including:
Once your water is boiling, place 8-10 peaches in the boiling water for around 60 seconds, depending on the size of your pot. You want to work quickly, so no peach is in too long, otherwise they will cook and get soft.
Remove from heat and plunge into cold water (ice is helpful, cold is required). This stops the peach from cooking so it doesn’t get too soft, and also makes it cool enough to handle to peel.
Put child labor to work peeling peaches – lots of peaches.
The skins should slip off easily at this point. Again, working as quickly as possible is a good thing, as the longer they sit in water, the more water they will absorb. I usually let the boys finish peeling while I prep everything else for canning. I remove the pits and either half or quarter the peaches, depending on the jar size (I use wide mouth quart jars for peach halves) and make sure the cut edges are exposed to the lemon water to prevent browning.
I like to work from left to right on my stove. Fill on the left side, process on the right, unload finished jars on a waiting cloth next to the right side of the stove. I prefer to cold pack peaches, which means the fruit is loaded in the jars at room temperature and then boiling syrup is poured over the top. I think the peaches stay firmer and more attractive using this method, even though they float more in the jar.
In this photo I have the rings and lids at the top, sugar syrup on the lower left, water bath canner on the right.
To prepare syrup, while heating water, add sugar slowly, stirring constantly to dissolve. Bring to a gentle boil. Fill jars while syrup is still boiling hot. For light syrup, use 2 1/4 cup sugar per 5 1/4 cups water, which will yield 6 1/2 cups of syrup. You may use less sugar, fruit juice or honey, but these will all give your product a shorter shelf life and quicker discoloration. Sugar acts as a preservative by binding up free water in the fruit (see The Natural Canning Resource Book). Note: The juice from the peaches also makes a great flavoring for homemade water kefir.
Drain peaches in a colander. Fill jars to 1/2 inch headspace (leave fruit and syrup 1/2 inch from top of jar). Ladle on hot syrup. Run you chopstick or small non-metallic spatula between the peaches and the jar to remove air bubbles (metal may scratch the inside of the jar). Add extra syrup if needed. Wipe rim clean, screw on lid (not too tight – air must escape during processing).
* Note: if using Tattler lids
Place jars on rack in canner. When canner is full, lower jars into water. Make sure jars are covered by 1-2 inches of water. Bring to boil, process (boil gently) pints 20 minutes, quarts 25 minutes.
When the cooking time is up, remove jars at once and place on a rack or on towels away from heat and away from any draft. If using Tattler lids, tighten rings as soon as they are removed from the water bath. This is not necessary for standard canning lids.
After 12-24 hours, check lids for seal. Standard lids should be concave in the center and held down tightly. Tattler lids should be snug if you try to pull them off. I love listening to the “ping” as the jars seal.
Here’s round one of peaches the next day, wiped off ready to be labeled with date on contents on the lid with a Sharpie marker
Drying peaches is super easy. I often dry whatever I can’t easily fit in the canner, or peaches that are too soft to can or marked up a bit. Thinly slice your peeled peaches, dip them in the lemon water to prevent browning, then drain the slices in a strainer. Place slices on dehydrator tray or Clean a Screen insert
I highly recommend using the mesh inserts, as the peaches are very sticky and like to stick to the trays. With the inserts, you just bend them and the dried fruit pops right off.
Store in an airtight container out of direct sunlight. If I have a lot of a particular dried fruit, I vacuum seal it in mason jars with the vacuum sealer attachment
So there you go! Peachy goodness to enjoy all year long. If you’ve enjoyed this post, please consider passing it along.
The boys and I went strawberry picking twice this season, and came home with two trays of berries each time. To put away some of these beautiful berries to enjoy for the rest of the year, we made two batches of low sugar jam (strawberry and strawberry-banana). We also used four other methods of preserving strawberries – freezing, drying, making fruit leather and flavoring kombucha. Continue reading »
My husband ends up eating breakfast on the run quite a bit, and rather than having him hit the drive through on the way to work or surviving on boxed granola bars (most of which are loaded with soy), I started hunting for a good soaked granola bar recipe. I finally settled on a recipe from Sustainable Eats.
The original recipe was a crunchy granola, which Annette modified by soaking the oats overnight. Her family liked to eat it as a granola cereal, but she said the soaked version (for her) had turned out more like a breakfast cookie. That sounded good to me.
Soaked Granola Bars
Soak oats overnight by putting them in a bowl and adding enough water to cover, plus a couple of inches (they will expand) and two tablespoons whey, buttermilk or vinegar. In the morning, place the oats in a colander and let drain one hour before proceeding with recipe.
Mix together oats, coconut, nuts, and sunflower seeds and fruit, if desired. The first time I made this I used 2 cups nuts and skipped the apple bits, but my husband wanted more nuts and fruit.
Blend coconut oil, honey, molasses and salt. The first time through I used 1/2 cup honey, with extra fruit and nuts I used 3/4 cup. Pour over dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly.
Shape into bars or cookies and place on well oiled fruit leather sheet in dehydrator. Dry between 135 and 115 degrees, overnight or as long as needed.
Your hands may get a little sticky.
As Annette notes, the lower the temperature the more “true” the flavors and live enzymes from the honey remain. After bars have partially dried, peel them off the sheets and place them on the screens to reduce drying time.
Note: the granola will harden as it cools. Adding dried fruit will soften the granola, which is just fine for us as we prefer a chewy granola bar.
Store in an airtight container for 3-4 weeks.
My first batch I did at around 135 and they dried in around 12 hours. The second batch I dried at around 115 – 125 and they took around 18 hours. My husband says that the cookies are easier to eat on the road, so I’m sticking with that shape from now on. He also says that two cookies fill him up until lunch time, whereas the two store granola bars he used to eat left him hungry mid-morning. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
This post has been added to Real Food Wednesday, Fresh Bites Friday, and Fight Back Friday.