Author Topic: primitives like dried out old fruit  (Read 522 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline franksolich

  • Scourge of the Primitives
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 58694
  • Reputation: +3069/-173
primitives like dried out old fruit
« on: July 06, 2009, 06:44:12 PM »
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x66522

Now, I'm not really making fun of dehydrated fruit; it's not my bag, but whatever rocks one's chair, rows one's boat.....

Quote
HappyCynic  (70 posts)      Fri Jul-03-09 04:15 AM
Original message
 
Dehydrated fruits

I recently picked up a dehydrator and I'm having some fun with fruits. I haven't tried too many but I'm keen to try a wide variety. I've tried the following so far:

strawberries, blueberries, cherries, banana. (all good)
pineapple (very, very good)
raspberries, blackberries (not so good - tolerable if you drop them the milk with your morning cereal and let the sit for a while)

For all the above, I just dried the fruit - no added sugar or coatings.

I plan on trying the following:

mango, kiwi, dragon fruit, watermelon (just one piece, more for curiosity's sake - I don't expect much to be left after it dries).

I'm also pondering whether to try lemons as well.

Any suggestions on other fruits to try?

What are some of your favourites?

First up, the warped primitive, who needs no introduction:

Quote
Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jul-03-09 08:11 AM
Response to Original message

1. Apples, nectarines and peaches are my favorites

Don't waste the watermelon, it's just not going to work. If you want fun with watermelon, buzz it up in a blender, strain the seeds out, and drink it. The juice is pure heaven.

The raspberries and blackberries are better turned into a sweetened puree and then into fruit leather.

You can also dry cranberries and make your own craisins. Just be aware they're going to be really puckery without soaking them in a sugar syrup first.

Of the list of your future experiments, mango will turn out the best. I say this as a dried mango addict who buys the stuff at Costco.

You know, franksolich is going to town tomorrow (Tuesday), to buy a watermelon and do as the warped primitive suggests.  It looks interesting.  However, franksolich plans on deseeding the watermelon before putting it into a blender; one wonders what's up with the warped primitive's suggestion on that.  Seeds get liquefied in a blender, so I have no idea of this "straining" stuff.

The Rita Hayworth primitive, who needs no introduction:

Quote
Tangerine LaBamba  (1000+ posts)      Fri Jul-03-09 10:54 AM
Response to Original message
 
2. Cantaloupe - it's terrific dried..............

Quote
HappyCynic  (70 posts)      Sun Jul-05-09 02:00 AM
Response to Reply #2
 
6. melons

I've never even thought of drying canteloupe. It's strange enough that I'll definitely have to give it a try. Have you tried honeydew? If so, how are they dried?

Quote
Tangerine LaBamba  (1000+ posts)      Sun Jul-05-09 02:24 AM
Response to Reply #6
 
7. I don't know about honeydew - 

they're sort of like watermelon in terms of water content, so it might not work.

I get my dried fruits from this place - http://www.nutsonline.com / - and they have all sorts of dried fruit, but no honeydew, so I suspect it doesn't dry well.

I gotta get me some of those dried kiwi.............

You know, "nutsonline" seems a perfect habituary for primitives.

Quote
HappyCynic  (70 posts)      Mon Jul-06-09 05:44 AM
Response to Reply #7

8. experiments

I'll probably end up experimenting with both watermelon and honeydew anyways. Just a piece of each to see what happens. If it turns out, I can always get more to dry. I may also see about trying some lychee (probably a bad idea but I'm curious).

Thanks for the welcome. I was actually a long timer lurker so I'm really only new in terms of being registered and posting.

Quote
wildeyed  (1000+ posts)        Fri Jul-03-09 01:37 PM
Response to Original message
 
3. Fruit leathers are fun.

I go to the farmers market and buy bushels of in-season fruit that is a little bruised or ugly for whatever reason at greatly reduced prices. Doesn't matter what the fruit looks like for fruit leather, and home made is so delicious!

The mopinko primitive, who needs no introduction:

Quote
mopinko  (1000+ posts)        Sat Jul-04-09 05:54 PM
Response to Original message
 
4. do you have a dog? sweet potatoes make a great chewy for dogs. 

thinking i might try some of these in the oven. just sliced about 1/4" thick.

much better for dogs than raw hide.

Why is rawhide not good for dogs? 

Quote
HappyCynic  (70 posts)      Sun Jul-05-09 01:58 AM
Response to Reply #4
 
5. no pets

I don't have any pets at all (and I'm not a fan of sweet potatoes, dried or otherwise). I do know a few people with dogs so if I ever get some sweet potatoes, I now have another way to "dispose" of them.

franksolich disposes of sweet potatoes, raw or canned, by tossing them out in the garden area, to decompose and decay, helping fertilize.
apres moi, le deluge

Offline GOBUCKS

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 24186
  • Reputation: +1812/-338
  • All in all, not bad, not bad at all
Re: primitives like dried out old fruit
« Reply #1 on: July 06, 2009, 07:58:25 PM »
Quote
Any suggestions on other fruits to try?

There are many at the DUmp, but some of the best candidates have recently been tombstoned.

Offline RobJohnson

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8876
  • Reputation: +332/-109
Re: primitives like dried out old fruit
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2009, 11:53:15 PM »
I thought this was going to be a thread about California Peggy!

Offline JohnnyReb

  • In Memoriam
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 32063
  • Reputation: +1997/-134
Re: primitives like dried out old fruit
« Reply #3 on: July 07, 2009, 01:57:49 AM »
You know, franksolich is going to town tomorrow (Tuesday), to buy a watermelon and do as the warped primitive suggests.  It looks interesting.  However, franksolich plans on deseeding the watermelon before putting it into a blender; one wonders what's up with the warped primitive's suggestion on that.  Seeds get liquefied in a blender, so I have no idea of this "straining" stuff.


Frank, be careful and don't drink the whole watermelon in one day. If you do, you might want to consider putting a litter box in every room before commencing.
“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of ‘liberalism’, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” - Norman Thomas, U.S. Socialist Party presidential candidate 1940, 1944 and 1948

"America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality, and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within."  Stalin

Offline franksolich

  • Scourge of the Primitives
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 58694
  • Reputation: +3069/-173
Re: primitives like dried out old fruit
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2009, 05:55:02 AM »
Frank, be careful and don't drink the whole watermelon in one day. If you do, you might want to consider putting a litter box in every room before commencing.

Yeah, I know.

When I was a teenager, I used to make quite some money babysitting for a Mormon family in the Sandhills of Nebraska.  They had, like, nine kids, between infancy and 11 years old.  (A few years ago, I saw the mother, now of eleven kids, of course adults now; she was still blonde, petite, and looked circa 30 years old.)

One summer night, as instructed by the parents, I cut up a watermelon for the kids to have after their excursion to the playground.  I omitted the infant, because he was still pretty small, in diapers and all that.

The infant whined; he wanted in on it.  No infant food would satisfy him. 

So I put the parental-approved baby food aside, and fed him watermelon in small doses, considerably squashed.

About half an hour later, it started.  The infant got restless. 

His diapers needed changed, and so I did that.

Then he got restless again; ooops, apparently he had been done when I first changed him.  So I changed him again, which was pointless because he immediately got restless again.  This went on for some time, way past his bedtime.

The family used cloth diapers, not disposable ones, and even though I had been left with an ample (for normal times) supply, that stack was soon gone.  Desperate, I began using clean dish-towels, and ultimately, the monogrammed hand-towels in the bathroom.

The infant pumped out like a bison.

I continued to babysit for the family for two or three more years, until the oldest child, a boy, could take over, but in summers thereafter, everybody got ice cream, not watermelon.
apres moi, le deluge

Offline The Village Idiot

  • Banned
  • Probationary (Probie)
  • Posts: 54
  • Reputation: +96/-15
Re: primitives like dried out old fruit
« Reply #5 on: July 07, 2009, 06:20:22 AM »
lol