Dry It!

Mandolin-sliced pears, seasoned simply with cinnamon, ready to go into the food dehydrator.

Moving into our new home, we inherited four apple trees and three pear trees, all of which are prolific. We also live in an area abundant with farms, orchards, and ranches. Much of this bounty is available in the fall all at once and the easiest way to preserve it for later eating is to slice it and dry it.

Again, I like to keep it simple. As the pears and apples fall, enter the mandolin slicer and food dehydrator (a life goal realized three years ago). I slice the apples and pears into thin slices, lay them in a single layer on the dehydrator tray, sprinkle them with cinnamon and dry them for four hours at 135 F. These make an amazing snack for the girls to take to school or add to oatmeal mid-winter for a taste of summer.

 

 Dehydrated Peach Fruit Leather, Dehydrated Pear Chips, Dehydrated Apple Chips

My hometown is famous for its peaches and I always buy a case. We eat as many as we can, the juice leaving sticky trails throughout the house, however, a box of peaches cannot all be eaten before the ripe fruit turns, so enter the blender. I do blanch the peaches for one minute and the peels come right off. I then cut them in half and blend them into a puree, add them to the dehydrator trays and in about 4 to six hours we have fruit roll-ups for months. The girls, especially my youngest, L cannot get enough!

Peach fruit roll-ups ready to peel and eat!