Dry Your Own Fruits and Vegetables

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If you grow your own seedless grapes and prune plums, you can make raisins and prunes, but you'll first need time to cure in the skin. Splitting the fresh fruit for curing is time-consuming and best done the old way — over two days or more between screens in a hot sun during dry weather. For a sweet-sour treat, cut ends off any citrus fruit, section in rounds, and layer in pans of sugar before drying.

Try drying rounds of meaty, plum-type tomatoes: sprinkle some with a little sugar, salt, and dried basil or oregano. (In this and all other recipes, use canning salt or flaked and un-iodized Kosher salt.) They're good eaten out of hand or refreshed in water for soups and stews.

If you make prize-winning fruitcake, add to its uniqueness by making your own citron. Pare the outer rind from fresh citron or watermelon. Dice the hard, white inner rind into 1/4" cubes and color by soaking in sweetened, rich carrot juice (for yellow), or currant, berry, or beet juice (for red). If you must, soak the cubes in a rich solution of sugar, lemon juice, and red or green food coloring. Let dry.

Leathers

If you think dried fruit is expensive, check the price of commercial leathers — over half-a-buck an ounce! Plus, they are made from concentrates, and have monoglycerides, fatty oils, red dye # 40 or other chemicals. The basis of most home dried leathers is fresh apple pulp, so pick or buy a bushel or three of tart (but not sour) eating apples: Macintosh, Cortland, Macoun, Granny Smith, and such. Golden Delicious apples make a good leather, but bland varieties (such as Red Delicious) taste like cardboard, and cooking apples are too sour.

Wash apples well, quarter, and remove blemishes and cores. Don't bother peeling, which will reduce the color and nutrients. Add a little water if apples are dry and grind in a food processor or blender till skins are chopped fine. For a brittle but nutritious raw-fruit leather, press out juice in a strainer, and dry. For better consistency, add a dash of low-fat oil before blending. You can dry raw, unpressed leather pulp, but will have to place it in a shallow pan for the first phase of drying. For faster and easier drying and longer storage life, keep all the sweetness and flavor by cooking most of the water out. (This may result in some vitamin and taste loss.) On low heat, I bring the pulp to a slow simmer and cook till thick enough so that bubbles pop to the top. Cooking at too high a temperature will scorch the bottom; microwaves won't evaporate enough water.

For variety, add pie spices, a little sugar, and perhaps a pinch of salt before cooking apple pulp. For brighter color and flavor, toss in a handful or two of pitted cherries, strawberries, or any bush or cane berry. Add as much sugar as fruit if adding sour cherries, cranberries, or currants. For blueberries, add half as much sugar as fruit, plus a dash of lemon juice, a little grated nutmeg, and perhaps a handful of grated lemon rind; indeed, I like to add finely-shredded lemon, orange, or lime rind to any fruit leather for added crunch and tang.

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