We Preserve Foods the Natural Way

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Drying can be done in the oven when you want quickest results (fruits are ready to pack after only about six hours of such forced heat) . . . and we do fall back on our indoor facilities occasionally when the sun gets sulky. (To us dehydration specialists, that's an emergency!) Oven drying, however, causes a greater change in color and flavor than does the heat of the sun, and we prefer to use the latter whenever possible.

Our outdoor drying is done on folding tables set up on the patio and covered with clean, light-colored paper. Once I tried a backing of aluminum foil to see whether it made an appreciable difference in processing time or the quality of the dried foods. It didn't, and —since the use of that material goes against my ecological conscience — I haven't repeated the experiment. Cookie sheets, cake pans, wire racks, or just plain butcher paper are all suitable surfaces on which to dry edibles, as long as the items to be dehydrated are placed far enough apart to allow the circulation of air. (Spaciousness is important . . . as I know from one occasion when I crowded some apricots together on the table, and lost them to mold.)

Fruits seem to store especially well when sun-preserved . . . and I was surprised to learn how great a variety can be dried. We've processed not only apples, apricots, peaches, and pears, but cherries, chokecherries and crab apples. Even watermelon can be dehydrated if it's spread thinly enough over a drying surface. Elderberries, serviceberries, currants, and Oregon grapes all turn out beautifully too, ready for use in winter pies.

The only fruits I haven't found satisfactory for drying are raspberries, blackberries, salmonberries and strawberries, which take too long to process and occupy table space I need for other foods that follow them into season. I should mention, though, that my sister — who has more room for her dehydrating operation than we have — has sun-preserved strawberries and was very pleased with the results.

Fruits which are being dried must remain in direct sunlight for several hours of the day. I learned the importance of this point from my only failure (apart from the overcrowded apricots): a batch of peaches which I put out just as the sun rebelled. At the time I was too busy with other responsibilities to oven dry the poor things . . . and four days of cloud and rainstorms proved too much for them.

Fruits being dehydrated by the sun can be left out at night, if you're certain it won't rain, but they should be covered with a sheet. (Insects stay away from most food that's exposed to full sunlight, and then crawl all over it after sundown.) As soon as the shade falls on our tables late in the day, we set them back under the patio roof and drape them with clean sheeting.

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