Friday 3 January 2014

Preserving fruit, extending kin

We made it to Moss Vale! 929 kms from our home in Daylesford, Victoria to the Southern Highlands of NSW, averaging a leisurely 24 kms per day.


We joined kin from far and wide to become artist as extended family for a lovely, warm but nonetheless strange little timezone between Christmas and New Year.


We caught up with some old friends and reunited with Zeph so that finally all our bike seats are full.


It feels good to have onboard again what Zeph brings to the gang.


We have yabbied and swam in the Wingecarribee River,


and foraged for wild cherry plums to turn into fruit leather.


Although not all reached the bag...


The ones brought home we squashed and mashed with our hands,


and then pushed the pulp through a sieve


leaving all the pips and skin.


We spread out the pulp over grease-proof paper on a large-sized pizza tray


and dried in a low oven for about 8 hours. Alternatively you can dry the paste in the sun over several days.


The result is a delicious, sweet and nutritious fruit leather which is preserved for many moons with no additives or added sugar.

From we five here, we wish you a happy and health-filled year ahead.

7 comments:

  1. I tried a similar recipe but with grapes! There was an overgrown vine at an abandoned house in newcastle with fruit falling to the ground. It was delicious!

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  2. awesome chris, so the grapes worked well? as you probably know, this method of preserving is also good for turning inedible hawthorn berries into edible-medicinal food.

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    1. Brilliant. We have many hawthorns here and last years fruit became a jelly which is no longer viable as we exclude processed sugar whenever possible now. Thanks!
      Happy new year to you all.

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  3. wonderful thanks, Ill try that with the loquats up here

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    1. good idea! please let us know how you go, they're woody's favourite fruits, although we all love them dearly. so good they are the first fruits after winter, in our neck of the woods anyway...

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  4. I love how both topics are certainly correlated. Looks like the whole clan had tons of fun, with the meet up and all. I love cherry plum and I wonder how those leathers made from them taste like. Thank you for sharing this fun post. Great pictures, by the way. Cheers!

    Faith Thomas @ The Berry Farm

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    1. thanks faith, a pleasure to share. yes, great summer things to do with kids: collecting plums, making fruit leathers and soaking ourselves in the creek, life is sweet in such simplicity.

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