I found a new use for all those delicious apples. The critters haven’t ever really gone for the apples. We have at least 5 apple trees with 3 great producers, none of which we have positively identified. We don’t really care. As is documented on this site, I have attempted pressing our harvest some years ago. The results were good, but it was hard. Maybe if we had ready access to a press,; maybe look on ebay or craigslist for one someone is trying to part with. Anyway, we already owned a food dehydrator for mushroom preservation. Not sure when the epiphany hit, but it did, dried apples. I’ve never really had dried apples, dried apricots of course, staple hiking food. The trick was going to be getting them to the state for drying. When I make my Ina Garten French Apple Tart, I don’t actually peel the apples and coring and chopping is the most labor intensive part, more so even than the crust…who woulda thunk. That is with the food processor…but I digress.
Enter the Johnny Apple Peeler, brought to me by Amazon for an extremely reasonable price. I can peel, core and slice an apple in a few seconds. About 10-12 apples will fill one batch of the dehydrator. That part does take time, probably at least 6 hours, but it is easy! I left it overnight once by accident with no noticeable detriment to the product. I attempted one batch of apple chips with spices. This didn’t work, though spiced dried apples is a whole ‘nother world. I think a crispy chip requires higher heat. I tried that but ended up with too much time and they tasted a little burnt. Anyway, the dried apples are addictive. I sent Erin Wint home with a bag and will give a few bags out as Christmas gifts. This coincided with a new though primitive “apple” picker so I ended up processing upwards of 90 apples this season. This is on top of several months of fresh apples, a batch of sauce and several of the afore-mentioned tarts. A very good season in the country. Also a great year for Bay Nuts….
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