Dried fruit

“ Dried fruits are now occupying more attention than perhaps they have ever done before. It has been proved in a large way by giving troops dried vegetables and fruits that the attack of scurvy could be warded off, but in curing scurvy they were nowhere alongside green. Still it teaches us that dried fruits should be used when green can not be obtained. If soaked for a few hours before cooking they make a capital substitute for fresh fruit, and they come cheaper to the consumer. I wonder that miners, sailors, and others do not use dried fruits very largely. ”

“ Radishes, endive, and beetroot supply salads, and celery is in prime condition.
Forced seakale and beans are already in the market. Broccoli, parsnips, celery, artichokes, turnips, leeks, onions, sorrel, beet, winter salads, are the commonest vegetables.
Fruit.—For fresh fruits we have apples and pears home-grown, and apples, oranges, tomatoes, grapes from abroad, and hothouse pineapples and melons. In dried fruits the choice is endless. Raisins, currants, and sultanas are but three names given to many different kinds of dried grape. ”

“ Keep sun-dried fruit in a warm, airy place, sunning it often. Look it over for worms, throw out infested bits, scald 143the residue one minute in full boiling water, spread thin, and dry in the oven. In a long damp spell bring dried fruit into the kitchen and hang where heat will strike it, but away from steam. ”

“ No fruit should have any visible moisture on the surface. As the dried apples, pears, peaches and apricots are handled they should feel soft and velvety to the touch and have a pliable texture. You do not want fruit so dry that it will rattle. If fruits are brittle you have dried them too much.
After the apples and all other fruits are dried they must go through another process, called "conditioning." The best way to "condition" fruits is to place them in boxes or cans and pour them from one container into another once a day for three or four successive days. ”

“ Dried apples are much inferior to the fresh fruit, because they become toughened in drying, and because growers sometimes smoke them with fumes of sulphur in the process, in order to bleach or whiten them; and this turns them into a sort of vegetable leather. ”

“ This method of preserving fruit, except in large establishments where it is dried by steam, is but little used, since canning is quicker and superior in every way. Success in drying fruits is dependent upon the quickness with which, they can be dried, without subjecting them to so violent a heat as to burn them or injure their flavor. ”

“ Sometimes the clusters, being tied several together, are dipped in a ley of the ashes of rosemary and vine branches, with a certain portion of slaked lime, and are then dried by exposure to the sun. The best fruit of this description are the sun, and jar raisins; both of which are dried in the sun, without any preparation. These are imported from the southern countries of Europe; and also from the Asiatic provinces of Turkey. They are principally used for desserts, whilst Malaga raisins, and some other kinds, are employed for culinary purposes and the making of wine. ”

“ Its seeds, in size and form, like a small acorn without its cup, are eaten green, or dried as nuts, and are often preserved as sweetmeats; they have a nut-like flower. Its roots, sometimes as thick as the arm, of a pale green without, and whitish within, in a raw state, are eaten as fruit, being juicy, and of a sweetish and refreshing flavour, and when boiled are served as vegetables. ”

“ In such cases care must be exercised always to have the exposed articles under such control as to enable them to be gathered up and put away when rain is threatening. The dried apple is a wholesome fruit, although somewhat unattractive in appearance owing to the darkening of the surface during the long exposure necessary to secure the proper degree of evaporation. When properly prepared the dried apple has its moisture content reduced to approximately 30 percent or less. ”

“ The harvest commences as soon as one or two berries at the base of the spikes begin to turn red, and before the fruit is mature, but when full-grown and still hard; if allowed to ripen, the berries lose pungency, and ultimately fall off and are lost. The spikes are collected in bags or baskets and dried in the sun, on mats or hard ground, for two or three days. ”

“ In fact, a survey of our fruit products shows that drying is by no means an unusual method of preservation. Prunes, figs, dates, raisins, apples, and apricots are staples in the food markets of the world. ”

“ The luxuriance of the peach, the plum, the pear and the apple, is such, in this region, as to afford the most perfect possible specimens. The vigor of fruit-trees, in such a soil and under a heaven so congenial, produces fruits which are very large without being coarse-fleshed; the flavor concentrated, and the color very high. It is the constant remark of emigrants from the East, that our apples surpass those to which they have been accustomed. ”

“ The rusts and mildews and blights which destroy our fruit all have their beauty of growth and fruition when we examine them through a lens, and the yeast by which flour and water is made to rise into the porous, spongy dough is just as truly a plant as is the geranium blossoming at the kitchen window. ”

“ Never gather currants or other soft or small seed fruit immediately after a rain for preserving purposes, as they are greatly impoverished by the moisture absorbed. In preserving all fruits of this class, if they are boiled until tender or transparent{256} in a small quantity of water, and the sugar is added afterward, the hardness of the seeds, so objectionable in small fruits, will be thus avoided. ”

“ Wash small quantities of fruit gently in cold water. Do not permit fruit to stand in water for any length of time since it will become water-soaked and lose flavor and food value. Drain fruit thoroughly.
Peel fruit and remove pits or seeds. Halve, slice, chop, crush, or puree fruit as indicated in the instructions for each specific fruit. Some fruit, especially berries, may be left whole, but remove stems or hulls. Work with small quantities of fruit at a time, particularly if it is fruit that darkens rapidly. Two to three quarts is an adequate amount to handle at one time. ”

“ In the fresh state the fruit is very aromatic, and the juicy pulp which it contains has an agreeable flavour, so that when mixed with water and sweetened, it forms a palatable refrigerant drink. The fruit is never eaten as dessert, though its pulp is sometimes made into a preserve with sugar.
The fruit of the wild tree is described as small, hard, and flavourless, remaining long on the tree. The bark of the stem and root, the flowers and the expressed juice of the leaves are used in medicine by the natives of India. ”

“ In selecting small-seeded fruits, like berries, for canning, those having a small proportion of seed to pulp should be chosen. In dry seasons berries have a larger proportion of seeds to pulp than in a wet or normal season, and it is not wise to can or preserve such fruit unless the seeds are removed. ”

“ The blight, under this aspect, is nothing but ringing or decortication, effected by diseased sap, destroying the parts in which it lodges, and then itself drying up. The branch will grow, fruit will set, and frequently become larger and finer flavored than usual. ”

“ Are there many runners, or few, or none? Do the new runners bear blossoms and fruit? If so, when do they commence to bud and bloom? When do the berries begin to ripen? Notice the size and shape of the fruit, also the color. You can tell much from the taste of the berry. No two varieties taste exactly alike. Some are real sweet and some kinds real sour. ”

“ Remove the runners as they appear, and the life of the plant goes to make vigorous foliage and a correspondingly large fruit bud. The sap is stored up as a miller collects and keeps for future use, the water of a stream. Moreover, a plant thus curbed abounds in vitality and does not throw down its burden of prematurely ripe fruit after a few hot days. It works evenly and continuously, as strength only can, and leisurely perfects the last berry on the vines. You will often find blossoms and ripe fruit on the same plant—something rarely seen where the plants are crowded and the soil dry. ”

“ The fruit that follows is yellow, being near ripe, and covered with a white freeze, or cotton; thick set on the younger, and growing less as they grow to be thorough ripe, bunched out oftentimes in some places, some being like an apple, and some a pear, of a strong heady scent, and not durable to keep, and is sour, harsh, and of an unpleasant taste to eat fresh; but being scalded, roasted, baked, or preserved, becomes more pleasant. ”

“ But, in such seasons as it has occurred to any one to go in for more extensive gardening, we rejoice in a profusion of carrots, turnips, parsnips, onions, taro, beet-root, and sundry other things.
Fruit can hardly be looked on as a food; it is merely an ornamental accessory to it, in our opinion. We are great fruit-consumers, but we look on such trifles as only refreshers for odd moments, and not as having anything to do with the serious business of eating. ”

“ But when the fruit is allowed to become ripe, which is not when it first turns red, but when the seeds have become dark brown and the berries assume a mahogany color, then will its true richness and flavor be developed, and the fruit be found to possess that commingling of sweet and sour which is sprightly, refreshing and agreeable. For those whose taste demands a greater degree of sweetness, sugar may be added without destroying the flavor, but they will be few who will require much addition of saccharine beyond that which the perfectly ripened berry yields. ”

“ By this means the stools become very vigorous and bear the most abundant crops. In the spring after the fruit is set, place around each plant a small quantity of straw, or what is much better, cover the whole surface of the ground one inch thick with wheat chaff. This prevents evaporation, protects the fruit from the earth, improves the flavor, and will greatly increase the size. ”

“ When they are to be eaten, the skin, or rather flesh, must be taken off, under which are found six or seven white kernels, placed in a circular order, and the pulp with which these are enveloped, is the fruit, than which nothing can be more delicious: It is a happy mixture of the tart and the sweet, which is no less wholesome than pleasant; and with the sweet orange, this fruit is allowed in any quantity to those who are afflicted with fevers, either of the putrid or inflammatory kind. ”

“ Bacteria and moulds, which cause the decay of fruits, need moisture for development and growth. If the moisture is evaporated, the fruits will keep almost indefinitely. Fruits and vegetables can be easily and inexpensively dried. ”

“ The truth is this, that the leaves prepare the nourishment for the grapes, without which they will never ripen, and unless there are sufficient leaves so situated as to their exposure to the sun and air that they can properly and abundantly supply this nourishment to the fruit, it will never perfectly ripen. ”

“ A fruit, on the other hand, lays itself open in every way to attract the attention of animals, and so to be dispersed by their aid, often amid the nourishing refuse of their meals. It is true that, with the fruit as with the nut, to digest the actual seed itself would be fatal to the life of the young plant. But fruits get over this difficulty by coating their seeds first with a hard, indigestible shell, and then with a soft, sweet, pulpy, and nutritious outer layer. ”

“ As it produces new bunches every month, there are always some quite ripe, some green, some just beginning to button, and others in full flower. The fruit is three-lobed and of a greenish hue, of different sizes, from the size of an ordinary tennis-ball, to that of a man's head, and is composed of two rinds. ”

“ As sauces for desserts and for summer beverages for sick or well, the pure juices of fruits are most wholesome and delicious. So useful are they and so little trouble to prepare, that no housewife should allow the fruit season to pass by without putting up a full stock. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, currants, grapes, and cherries are especially desirable. In preparing them, select only the best fruit, ripe, but not over-ripe. ”

“ Heaps of fruit are raised in an open part of the orchard, where, by means of a free air and less heat, the desired maturity is gradually effected, with an inconsiderable waste of the juice and decay of ths fruit, which thus becomes almost totally divested of rancidity. And though a few apples will rot even in this manner, they are still fit for use: all of them continue plump and full of juice, and heighten in a considerable degree the colour of the liquor, without imparting to it any disagreeable smell or taste. ”

“ Plant running, not of stocky habit, but healthy and vigorous; fruit obtusely conical, three inches broad at the stem, and two inches and a half in depth; skin yellowish-white, thin and tender while the fruit is young, hard and shell-like when ripe; flesh dry and well flavored in its green state, and often of good quality at full maturity. ”

“ If the seeds be subjected to pressure, they will yield a proportion of oil so great as nearly to amount to their own weight; and, when ground with water, they afford a cooling and nutritious kind of milk.
226. The BOTTLE GOURD is an American fruit with woody rind, and of very various shape, belonging to the same tribe as the pumpkin, and produced by a creeping plant (Cucurbita lagenaria) with somewhat angular and downy leaves, each having two glands at the base underneath. This fruit is at first green, but when ripe, it assumes a dull yellow colour; and the flesh is spongy and very white. ”