Never Throw Out Spoiled Fruit Again!

Posted by amy in News

You buy all this fresh fruit and then don’t get around to eating it all…what a waste.  Sure, it makes your compost better but not really the best use of these fabulous berries.  I had some cherries that were starting to go bad and I just didn’t know what to do with them.  I had missed the point where I could still put them in the freezer and enjoy them this winter.  Then I remembered that my brother, Nik Mac, had a great way to mix fruit with all natural applesauce and make fruit rollups!  Minor issue, I don’t have a dehydrator and there are way too many bugs to use the sun as my drying source.  Then I found that you could put the tray in the oven at the lowest setting, mine is around 140 and put it in for a few hours, so I decided to try it.  I blended the cherries and then added some applesauce until it was liquid (medium thickness), then put it on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet.  It sat in the over for about 4 hours, and I did prop the door open a bit for some circulation. It turned out so well! I’m not going to be making product for the Rollup people anytime soon, but I’m definitely enjoying that dried cherry fruit jerky!

It worked out well but seems a bit inefficient to spend that much energy and effort for every batch. So here will be my new process:

1) Take fruit that is going to spoil and blend until liquid.

2) Add some All Natural applesauce

2.5)  I’m going to take the liquid batches and freeze them.  Then defrost and put several trays into the oven at once to conserve energy.

3) Put parchment paper on cookie sheets and spread out the liquid fruit.

4) Place in oven at lowest setting (~140), prop door open and let dry.

5) When its not sticky anymore (4 hours), pull the trays out and roll.

Enjoy!  If you have other ideas or exact measurements, let me know!