By Clodagh and Dick Handscombe

THE POTENTIAL

A few years ago we purchased the Doerrex tray drier (deshidratador in Spanish) shown in the photograph for drying surplus fruit and vegetables from the garden for later use. At the time we envisaged drying herbs, tomatoes, wild mushrooms, grapes and figs but gradually what we dry has expanded considerably and for most of the year the drier is in operation during several nights of the week, at present for drying mandarin and orange slices. Since the fan drier only heats the drying air to 40 degrees centigrade for herbs and a maximum of 70 degrees for wet fruits such as tomatoes ,strawberries and mandarins the electricity cost is minimal and we have never noticed it on our electricity bill.

EXAMPLES OF WHAT WE DRY

What we dry includes the following:

1. For dried fruit/vegetable snacks while out for the day walking the mountains, fishing or playing tennis. What we took in our rucksacks last weekend included dried mandarin, apple and courgette slices (the later pepped up before drying with a dash of olive oil flavoured with soy sauce); dried whole raspberries, figs, alpine strawberries and cherry tomatoes; plus some banana slices and pineapple chunks prepared from purchased bananas and pineapples as these  plants are too tender for our garden.
2. The above as delicious lightweight snacks while waiting at airports for delayed flights and onboard now that only rather boring expensive food is available, and while driving on long journeys.
3. For baking cakes and breads raisins, olives, poppy and fennel seeds and walnuts.
4. For flavouring cooked dishes such as rabbit with dried mandarin slices and raisins – dried grapes without first treating them with caustic soda which is often done commercially to speed sun drying.
5. For flavouring soups and casseroles herbs, oyster and shitake mushrooms grown in a plastic sack in the garage plus tomatoes and onions.
6. For out of season desserts strawberries, raspberries, mandarins, cherries and blackberries.
7. For producing healthy infusions herbs such as mint, sage, lemon verbena and rue plus lemon slices to avoid winter colds.
8. For tapas with a drink before a meal  peanuts, mandarin slices, courgette crisps, grape tomatoes, cherries, strawberries and raspberries.
9. For making home made chocolates – mandarin or orange sliced with one half coated with dark chocolate or chocolates with dried cherry tomato, cherry or raspberry  centres are especially tasty.
10. For flavouring our home made health/energy drink Kombucha orange and mandarin slices, jasmine flowers and lemon verbena leaves.
11. Flowers and bark for pot-pourries.
12. Seeds collected from flower and vegetable plants to keep for sowing the following year.
13.  Healthy energy biscuits made from seeds, dried fruits, ginger and honey.

We have found several tasty recipes in the book The Raw Food Gourmet by Gabrielle Chavez published by the Findhorn Press.

WHY BOTHER?

For us there are four main reasons.
1.To ensure that we don’t waste fruits and vegetables that are in excess of our daily needs when at their best.
2. To ensure that the dried fruits, vegetables and nuts that we take on walks are fresh.
3. To ensure that all dried fruits, vegetables and nuts used in the house are free from unnatural  preservatives, colorants and sweeteners.
4.To no longer purchase packets of dried fruit and nuts. When we walked across Spain through the Pyrenees for fifty days we became very conscious of the varying freshness’s of packs as we passed from village to village, and the number of E-additives. The dryer paid for itself many months ago.

TYPICAL DRYING TIMES AND AIR TEMPERATURES ON OUR DOERREX DRIER

Times vary according to thickness of slices and sizes of fruits and seeds.
Additional drying times will be found in the article titled Drying fruit and vegetables in Spain on our website www.gardeninginspain. Look in Archives April 2007.

WHERE CAN OUR TYPE OF DRIER BE OBTAINED

Although we originally traced ours in the UK it is now conveniently available in Spain by mail order from Conasi. For the convenience of readers they have recently set up the dedicated email address order@conasi.biz for English language enquiries and purchases.

Happy drying! It’s a great way of enjoying many of the edible things from your garden. Of course if you grow nothing you can still dry purchased produce when there are special offers but it will cost you more than drying your own home grown produce.

© Clodagh and Dick Handscombe January 2008.