Directions on the Subject of Drying Fruit.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 934, 24 January 1890, Page 4

Directions on the Subject of Drying Fruit.

The fallowing direction! on the subject of frtyic'-drying \vi 1 be found of great .practical assistance in the coming ft.uyc season, Th y are taken from the California Fruit Grower : Reaches and aprico s should be cut in half with a sharp knife, the pit thrown one side and til!* two halves laid upon the tray, fl -sh side uppermost, the skin side next to the tray. When your tray is full, not overcrowded, place tho fruit immediately in the sulphur che-ifc, exercising great care not to allow it to re uaintoo long—twenty or thirty minutes is quite sufficient, provided your chest or box is well filled with fumes. Tuis process does not bleach the fruit, as s me people suppose. It is not auy whiter, if as white, when it comes out as when it went in, but the sulphuring of fruit immediately after cutting or paring checks and arrests decom. position and prevents the fresh cut from oxidizing or turning black by being exposed to the air, which it will do in a very short space of time if not sulphured. There are very many cheap, practicable methods of sulphuring fruit, but for the benefit and information of a few credulous persons who are labouring under the impiession that sulphured fiuit is fiuit with sulphur sprinkled on it, we will state that- such an impression is erroneous ; that sulphured or bleached fruit mean 3 fruit that has b en submitted to the smoke or fumes arising from the burning

of sulphur, and if properly done, improves and beautifies the fruit in place of injuring it. Upon removing the fruit from the sulphur-box, place it either in the evaporator or in the sun to dry at onee. To make good fruit evaporation should commence the moment the fruit is taken from the sulphur-, fumes..-, You should watch your fruit closely while drying, cover it at night and the moment the'moisture iaout of "it take ib.up and pile it iu your packing house, where It,should be allowed to remaiu two or throe days, according to circumstances, to sweat and equalize. To secure uniform drying you should grade your green fruit before cutting it, for if you place halves of very large peaches with halves of very small peaches upon the same tray the smaller fruit will dry out quicker than the larger fruit, and by the time the larger fruit is sufficiently cured the Btnaller fruit will be dried as hard as, a bone. By grading the fruit as; to size before cutting you will secure ■ uniformity and when on the trays it will dry evenly. Don’t allow your fruit to remain upon the trays in the sun-until-it is dry and hard, so that when handled it rattles’like so many bones, and is all curled up. ! Fruit' in that 'Condition is over-dried. You shbuld watch it closely and take it r.p at’ the 1 proper time; after the moisthrai has beefti eVaperatsfl ’"onij of it and'the fruit is still' pliable and silky, owing to its 'natural' condition.’ ’t’hhre is a wide difference b’e'-’ tWeen properly cured fruit and dried fruit You want'to cure your frhit and, not dry itj.* If taken 'from the trays at ipe' proper' tupfl knd, placed in the allowpd" to sweat anij’ *— a laV*"* " Vii- ~ , .urinng -the

„ - vruwuou OllU V Cl UIJUJ ..x.ng the time that it remains -~ c re, you will discover that you have a | bright, pliable, velvety fruit, fit to pack in boxes under pressure, twenty-five or fifty pounds, iu the regulation box. Don’t face your box with selected pieces, but pack an

average box by placing an even layer of fruit against tho cover of the box, litst having put your paper lining in position. Use for this purpose the same quality of fruit; that you till the balance of the package with. A twenty-five or fifty pound box of fruit, if manipulated as described above, will be compact and will retain sufficient moisture to keep it soft and pliable for months, the pieces of ,fruit will closely adhere to one another and the packages will become so solid that to a very large degree it will prevent the eggs that may be on the fruit from hatching out, and also prevent the wortriß from working in the fruit to any grrat extent. Tho dipping process has hern found entirely unnecessary for any purpose what soever except for that of ruining tons of fruit annual y, principally peaches and apiicots. These two varieties of fruit, if dipped after drying acd before packing, should be sold and consumed at once. The evil effects of dipping fruit in hot water and dampening it for the purpose of making it pliable and o ft, so that it will pack, and adding weight to the fruit, is not apparent until two or three months hence, when it becomes soft, black, and almost entirely unfit for use. Better by far let the worms batch out and devour a small portion of the fruit in each corner of the package than render the whole lot unsaleable by the dipping process. The gaiu in weight amounts to little or nothing, as you cannot sell water for dried fruit. We are acquainted with growers who sprinkle the pile of dried fruit with cold water and then pack it This is a still more reprehensible practice and should be discontinued.