THE CALIFORNIA WAY WITH PRUNES 



539 



This riddle is hung upon four ropes with an incline ; the prunes are 

 thrown in the higher end, and by shaking it they roll down and 

 fall through the holes into boxes underneath. The first piece of 

 screen should be small, to let only stems and dirt through, and no 

 prunes. This long hanging screen is also used to grade prunes 

 after drying. There are now several excellent manufactured fruit 

 graders on sale in this State. Their work is very satisfactory, 

 and they have largely displaced home-made contrivances. 



The next step in the process is dipping in lye to thin and crack 

 the skin, which facilitates the escape of moisture in the drying pro- 

 cess. In the large caldron lye is made with one pound of con- 

 centrated lye to each twenty gallons of water, and kept boiling 

 hot. The fruit is put into wire baskets or galvanized pails with 

 perforated sides and bottoms, and dipped in the boiling lye for about 

 a minute, or until the skin has a wrinkled appearance, then the 

 basket is plunged into clean cold water to rinse off the lye. This 

 rinsing water must be frequently changed, for it soon becomes very 

 alkaline. Some begin with a stronger lye solution, one pound to 

 ten gallons of water, claiming that a very short dip in stronger lye 

 is better than long exposure in a weaker solution. After this dip- 

 ping, the prunes are placed on trays. In the sun the prune dries 

 sufficiently in from one to two weeks, according to the situation 

 and weather. 



A process of puncturing the skin of the prunes by causing them 

 to roll over needle points has also been employed to some extent. 

 There are now manufactured very capacious appliances for contin- 

 uous dipping, rinsing, puncturing and spreading on the trays so that 

 the fruit is handled in large quantities at a minimum cost. In no 

 branch of our fruit industry perhaps has there been greater advance 

 in labor-saving devices than in prune handling. 



When sufficiently dried the prunes are put through the "sweat," 

 which takes from several days to two or three weeks, and then 

 are ready for grading, finishing, and packing. In grading, the 

 prunes are separated by the use of a grader, as already described, 

 into a number of grades, the largest, forty prunes to the pound, and 

 so on, fifty, sixty, etc., to the smallest, which may run one hundred 

 or more to the pound. Finishing consists in exposing to steam, 

 in dipping in clear hot water, or hot sugar syrup, or in dipping in 

 boiled juice of ripe prunes, or peaches or apples, etc. Although 

 there is a great variety of materials used for "glossing" prunes by 

 different producers, the prevailing practice is to rely upon hot 

 water, to which pure glycerine is added at the rate of one pound 

 to twenty gallons. Some growers also add a little brine (having 

 first dissolved the salt and skimmed off the impurities). This final 

 hot dip kills insect eggs, and the fruit, after drying off away from 

 the access of insects, should be packed tightly in boxes. 



