Dehydrating apples

We love apples all year round. They are always present in the fruit bowl or protected in the store-room ready for ripening and eating. This year, our own trees didn't produce well at all and we had very little viable fruit that grew to harvest. Fortunately our neighbours in the village who are very generous have dropped off a couple of crates of small apples for us to enjoy.

The apples are sweet and very edible despite their diminutive appearance. We have made apple compote with some of them, eaten many and decided to try dehydrating a few to use as a snack for when we go out walking.

The apples were washed, cored and sliced into 1/4 inch slices, dipped in lemon and water (to prevent oxidisation), popped into the dehydrator for 10 hours then vacuum packed. We don't peel ours as we like the texture of the skin. This time I used powdered cinnamon on one tray of apple as an experiment. So far so good, a few bags of dehydrated apple slices we can enjoy later in the year. Early quality control measures indicate: sweet and fruity, a great texture with a bit of a bite and a touch of acidity - perfect.

Gift

Over the past week the rain has been fairly constant and the cooler weather persists. Not being able to get out for longer walks, this weather pattern allows us to get on with a few jobs and tasks that you just don't want to do when the sun shines. I have been sorting out the stores whilst Luis has been away at the first Matanza of the season in his family home in Palencia.

Knowing only too well that he will come back with an estate car full of goods from his Sister Rita, it was important to take stock of what needed using up and also to create space for the additional produce. Sorting through our stores it once again came to mind how generous people i.e. family, friends and neighbours are.

Over the past few weeks we have been gifted:

A Christmas cake
A crate of home-produced cider
A couple of kilos of locally grown Avocados
Approx 20 Kilos of apples
A jar of rich brown sugar from France
several jars of jams and pickles
Sweet Chestnut Paste and eggs
A brand new leather jacket

In addition, Luis returned from Rita's with:

30 jars of Pasata concentrated tomato sauce)
15 jars of Pisto (concentrated tomato sauce with pumpkin, pepper, onion marrow and paprika)
5 dozen eggs
8 jars of preserved green beans
4 packs of Chorizo
8 kg of sweet oranges
4kg Quince
Cheese
8kg of frozen raspberries
an assortment of vegetables....

We could have also had as much pork, ham, salami, chorizo or pork products as we had wanted but Luis has stopped eating meat for the time being so there seemed no point in stocking up on food that we would not use. The four packs of chorizo he brought home are for friends and visitors. He decided not to participate in the actual slaughter of the two pigs this time as it is never pleasant and not eating meat he did no longer feel obliged to participate. There is always enough work to do following the deed so he was inevitably kept very busy with the processing of the animals.

Together with our own harvests of fruits, vegetables and nuts, our bulk buy products and the produce we process into jams and pickles, we have a well stocked larder and really do not need to do much shopping for the foreseeable future.

We frequently gift produce ourselves and enjoy giving family, friends and neighbours samples of our soap, hand-creams, jams, pickles etc... Our thoughts on giving can be found here on one of our other blogs. A big thank you to all.