Drying Fruits and Vegetables 



A simple method of drying your surplus sup 

 ply of fruits and vegetables for future use 



THE advantages of drying vegetables 

 are not so apparent for the farm home 

 as they are for the town and city 

 household, which has no root cellar or 

 other place in which to store fresh vegeta- 

 bles. For the farmer's wife the new meth- 

 ods of canning probably will be better than 

 sun drying, which requires a somewhat 

 longer time. But quicker methods of dry- 

 ing are now in use, and the dried product 

 holds an advantage in 

 that it usually requires 

 fewer jars, cans or other 

 containers than do 

 canned fruits or vege- 

 tables; also dried ma- 

 terial can be stored in 

 receptacles which can- 

 not be used for canning. 

 Then, too, canned fruit 

 and vegetables freeze 

 and cannot be shipped 

 in absolute safety con- 

 veniently in winter. 



With a simple and in- 

 expensive equipment 

 all housewives can save 

 quantities of food which 

 are too small con- 

 veniently to can. A 

 few sweet potatoes 

 or apples or peas or 

 even a single turnip 

 can be dried and 

 saved. Even when 

 very small quanti- 

 ties are dried at a 

 time, a quantity suf- 

 ficient for a meal 

 will soon be secured. 

 Small mixed lots of 

 dried vegetables, such as cabbage, carrots, 

 turnips, potatoes, and onions, can be packed 

 together and used for soups and stews. 

 Three principal ways are applicable for 

 the home preparation of dried fruits and 

 vegetables; namely, sun drying, drying 

 by artificial heat, and drying by air blast. 

 These, of course, may be combined. In 

 general, most fruits or vegetables, to be 

 dried quickly, must be shredded or cut into 

 slices, because many are too large to dry 

 quickly or are covered with a skin, the pur- 



pose of which is to prevent drying out. 

 When freshly cut fruits or vegetables are 

 to be dried by means of artificial heat, they 

 should be exposed first to gentle heat and 

 later to the higher temperatures. If the air 

 applied at the outset is of too high a tem- 

 perature, the cut surfaces of the sliced 

 fruits or vegetables become hard, or 

 scorched, covering the juicy interior so 

 that it will not dry out. Generally it is 

 not desirable that 

 the air temperature 

 in drying should go 

 above 140 deg. or 

 150 deg. F., and it is 

 better to keep it 

 well below this 

 point. Insects and 

 insect eggs are killed 

 by exposure to heat 

 of this temperature. 

 It is important 

 to know the degree 

 of heat in the dryer, 

 and this cannot be 

 determined very ac- 

 curately except by 

 using a thermome- 

 ter. Inexpensive 

 oven thermometers 

 can be found on the 

 market, or an ordi- 

 nary chemical ther- 

 mometer can be sus- 

 pended in the dryer. 

 If a thermometer is 

 not used, the great- 

 est care should be 

 given to the regula- 

 tion of heat. The 

 temperature in the 

 dryer rises rather quickly and the product 

 may scorch unless close attention is given. 

 The reason sun drying is popularly believed 

 to give fruits and vegetables a sweeter 

 flavor is probably because in the sun 

 they are never scorched, whereas in the 

 oven or over a stove, scorching is a common 

 occurrence. 



A cheap and very satisfactory dryer for 

 use over the kitchen stove is one that was 

 worked out by the Department of Agri- 

 culture at Washington. Any handy boy or 



A frame made of laths or strips of wood 

 to hold trays of galvanized wire mesh 

 and swung over the range with a crane 



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