Drying fruit on board

[Bajansailor]

To all the liveaboard cruisers on here, have you tried sun drying any excess fruit on board?

If you are in a hot sunny region you dont need any special drying machines - the sun will do the work quite happily.
You can dry just about any type of fruit, and bananas are amongst the easiest to make (and the tastiest too).

The main rule to observe is not to let ANY water (rain or other) from coming into contact with the fruit after you have started drying them.
If you are worried about them blowing away, or being nicked by birds, a hamster cage or similar works wonderfully.
Leave them out all day in the sun, but take them inside in the evening before moisture can condense on the fruit.

Re bananas, slice them in half lengthwise (they dry more quickly then) - if you dip them in lime juice first (and perhaps sprinkle some cinnamon on) this makes them even tastier.
Carambolas (star fruit) also dry well - a bit like dried tomatoes, when you chew on them you get a veritable explosion of taste - much nicer than sweets!

I have met various cruisers who have also sun-dried meat and fish, but I havent tried these - but have tasted samples, and they were very scrummy.

Has any body got some good ideas or recipes for drying fruit?

 

[trouville]

I do that often!Im not keen on apples and they bruise go off (at least the ones i get)I slice and dry them i have to do it very often as everyone likes them and there soon gone.

I have four sieves,i cut the fruit then put them on top of each other with a mesh on top then leave them on deck on a board painted dark blue,the sieves are 6 inches above the board which heats as well and sends a flow of warm air up through the fruit.

If there a breeze so much the better except in winter.If theres no sun i take a stone(found at a second hand shop for frieing) put that above a stove and warm that.If its very cold then i hang the sieves above the heater

I dry garlic onions runner beans meat.If theres ever a lot i keep it in a plastic container with a large container of silica gel

One day i will have a laptop again i cant get used to changeing from azerty to the other one!!Found a cloudbook?? Much better than the asus Eee same price but with 1.2ulv 6hr battery 30giga & 512megs cant wait to find one!!

http://www.everex.com/

 

[trouville]

Ijust spent half an hour describing how we dry and smoke meat my thumb touched the mouse pad on this rubbish borrowed laptop and i went to the forum post gone!!

Dried meat aboard or on the beach is easy and delicious

 

[Bajansailor]

Oh dear, it is infuriating when computers do that! I think we have all been there.
I like your idea about stacking up the seives to dry the fruit in.

 

[Roberto]

I made this thing, but after trying to dry a couple of tomatoes at our latitudes I found one more reason to go a lot more to the south .. /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

It is all wrapped in a black cloth, with two openings at the top and bottom with mosquito netting
Supposed to be very professional but totally useless until now /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[lenseman]

Hiya Triuville, that happens to me also and it is very annoying. I have got round the problem by typing up my replies in Microsoft Word and rely on the automatic backup up facility (which I have set to backup every 5 minutes) if I lose power supply or the PC crashes, there is usually a Word backup I can use.

It is very good system if the response is going to take more than ten minutes to type.

 

[trouville]

Whasent a long post about half as long as my first,the thing is describing the process lot of thinking time how best to put it.

That image of a drying net looks good.Tomatoes are difficult you have to salt them to get the water out.

Dried food aboards great!The garlic keeps well and rehydrates to resembel fresh cant tell the differance.Perhapsthe dried is stronger in flavor?

If i get a cloudbook the very small mouse pad is at the top right well out of the way.

Willtry later to discribe how we flavor meat quickly and the simple but long drying (from 2 to 7 days)still better than the land system that says salt the meat etc then hang in a cool celler for a year!!!!Not quite adaptable for a boat!!

Ive seen briening "tubs" in junk shops that farmers used to salt their pork before hanging it in their chimeny far to be for a boat and the boats chiminys far to narrow!!

 

[Conachair]

Yes, that's so annoying, isn't it. You type a big long post and the machine crashes just as you are abou (CRASH) /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif