Fruit From Washington - Fruit Preparation History
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Fruit From Washington - Fruit Preparation History
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Historical Look at the Fruit Drying ProcessThe Library of Congress, Print and Photographs Division, has a phenomenal number of black and white prints from the Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information in their collection. We are astounded by the quality of these images, and the famous photographers, including Arthur Rothstein, Marion Post Wolcott, and Ann Rosener, who created many of these images. We are delighted to be able to make these images available here. These photographs are representative of our nation's vast resource within the Library of Congress, that captures a time, a place, a people. In this instance, these people are engaged in the process of drying fruit and garden produce.
From The New Buckeye Cook Book, 1905 “Dried Apples. -- Take only good, sound fruit, pare, quarter and
core and slice lengthwise; spread in the sun or fruit evaporator to dry,
or run them on strings and hang near kitchen fire. A piece of coarse muslin
or net stretched over a frame and hung from the ceiling, may also be used
for drying. When found that winter apples are not keeping well it is an
excellent plan to begin drying at once to prevent waste, and despite the
prejudice against dried apples, the fruit so put up at home may be made
with a little painstaking into sauce and pies that will be eaten with
a relish in the spring when fruit is scarce and high.” From Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book, 1918 “Drying is one of the simplest and cheapest ways of preserving fruits and vegetables for future use. Food may be dried by the sun or by artificial heat. If dried in the sun, protection from dust must be given, and food must be put under cover in the evening before the dew falls. Spread the prepared fruit or vegetable on frames covered with coarse wire netting or cheese-cloth and put in the sun for successive days until the product is sufficiently dried. Artificial drying is quicker and cleaner than sun drying, especially in moderate and cold climates. In drying food by artificial heat use a patent drier that will dry the largest amount of food with the smallest expenditure of time and heat.” “Length of Time for Drying. When done, the product should feel dry
on the outside but should be slightly soft inside. It will be pliable
in the fingers but it will not be possible to squeeze out water. Nothing
should be dried until brittle, for if the product is dried until hard
and crisp, it will not soften when wanted for use.”
Source: The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Farmer. Boston: Little, Brown, 1918. From On Horseback by Charles Dudley Warner “Nothing but lack of enterprise prevents any farmer from enjoying
abundance of fruit. The industry carried on at the moment at the Widow
Sherrill's was the artificial drying of apples for the market. The apples
are pared, cored, and sliced in spirals, by machinery, and dried on tin
sheets in a patented machine. The industry appears to be a profitable
one hereabouts, and is about the only one that calls in the aid of invention.”
- Charles Dudley Warner, On Horseback
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During
our growing up years, we had a little yellow, paperback book around
the house titled, "Dry It, You'll Like It!" (by Gen
MacManiman, 1973). This was our bible in the beginning as we experimented
with different methods of drying fruit. With the sun and wind
as our partners, we embarked on fruit drying in the great outdoors.
The well house, being short of stature, with its low, south sloping
roof, was the obvious place for laying out freshly prepared fruit
for drying. Mom created an ingenious drying surface using old,
wire bedsprings with fiberglass window screens on the bottom and
the top. The screens and bedsprings allowed air to circulate beneath
the fruit to speed the drying process! The only downside was that
fruit wasps would nibble through the screens, leaving a perfect
checkered pattern on some of the pieces of fruit!
