September 8, 2012: Canning is the showy star of the preserving world, but drying fruit is also a great, space-saving way to preserve the bounty of your summer fruits and vegetables. In September 2012, City Fruit and City People's Garden Store offered a free class on fruit dehydrating. It was taught by Kristin Danielson-Wong, who has been practicing and teaching fruit dehydration for a while (she's also a yoga teacher at Lotus Yoga in Columbia City).
If you have an oven that goes as low as 110-120 degrees, you can use it to dehydate. Otherwise, check into dehydrators. I bought one for about $40 that seems pretty decent. Kristin also suggest checking Freecycle and Craigslist or sharing one with a neighbor or friend.
After buying 35 lbs of apples at The Pantry's apple-picking day at Harmony Orchards, I can also attest that this apple-coring tool Kristin brought might also be useful. A big part of successful fruit drying is making sure all the pieces are cut uniformly. I don't know about you, but my ability to do this manually is...questionable. So I like the idea of this one tool to quickly core, peel and cut into same-size slices. Kristin also recommends checking Goodwill and other thrift stores for used ones.
Fruit leather is a great way to use up a lot of fruit on its way out. Cut off bruises and soft spots before processing. Always use a dehydrator tray or parchment paper. Don't use wax paper - it will stick.
Dried Asian pears were a revelation. Like candy! Seriously! From a person who eats a lot of actual candy!
Dried tomatoes. A space-saving way to capture the bounty of summer. Take it a step further and pulverize in a vitamix like my friend Brook from Learn to Preserve does for an easy-to-store powder you can use in place of tomato paste.