Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[saysfaa]

Tart cherry jam is my favorite by far! I still have more than a year's worth, though.

 

[Sally PB]

Sally, how long does your excaliber take to dehydrate a batch of cherries? How big is a batch?

It's been several years since I did cherries, but I think it was about 15-18 hours, all told, at 135 degrees. I have the 9 tray model, and I think 7 pounds fit very easily. I split them open and laid them out flesh side up. They were nearly touching, because I knew they'd shrink a lot and there'd be space between them in a few hours.

I usually check progress at roughly 12 hours. Sometimes I'll turn them over, but not always. The trays are mesh, but the top does dry faster. I mentioned that I swap the tray positions and rotate them front-to-back.

I just looked and Excalibur has 10 tray models available, and stainless steel. Mine is all plastic, and I think it's model 3926TB, very basic now! Just under $200, and I think I paid $275 (?) for mine about 28 years ago. I needed to replace the timer dial last year. That's it for repairs for this thing.

If it gave up the ghost, I'd buy another one and not think twice, though I'd get one of the newer models.

 

[Chickin Fairy]

Does anyone have ideas on how to speed up the process of dehydrating cherries? I am trying to get them processed fast enough to not waste any.

I don't think spreading each cherry open lets it dry enough faster to offset fitting fewer cherries on the trays at a time. But I'm not sure.

Can you think of anything else that might help?

You'll want to spread them so they aren't touching, this allows air to move around them. I would also slice them (they will dry faster the smaller they are) and purchase some plastic fruit trays to go in your dehydrators over the metal grates.

I also purchased a hanging drying mesh bag. It has 8 or so different layers. You could slice your cherries that are waiting to go into the dehydrator or the ones that are mostly dried and put them in there with a fan on them. I hang mine in my garage to dry my hops in the fall and I don't slice hops, takes about a week for them to dry fully, but might get you more production on either end of your current process.

What do you use the dried cherries for?

 

[Chickin Fairy]

I love my dehydrator, too! And I use it throughout the spring and summer for herbs, peppers, and fruit. I have a closet in my office where I store all my extra appliances.

I have a Corsi dehydrator and I love it. I've had it about 3 years now and it's easy to use and doesn't add a lot of additional heat to the kitchen. It's really reliable. But the timing is probably about the same as the Excalibur. Both are great dehydrators!

Okay, sales pitch over, happy Sunday everyone!

 

[saysfaa]

...
What do you use the dried cherries for?

Breakfast. About 99% of them go into steel cut oats oatmeal.

 

[Folly's place]

I buy the dried cranberries, big bags at Costco, and that's what goes into my oatmeal! Also with peanuts...
Mary

 

[saysfaa]

Yep. We used craisins for years before discovering chaisins. Then still did craisins most of the time because they cost so much less and both have sugar. Then we used mostly chaisins after we moved back here and discovered 5 lb boxes of chaisins for a reasonable price at Meijer. They still cost more than craisins but are significantly closer. Besides, I like the box they come in - a nice size and sturdy and all the same size. I have everything from candles and cookie cutters to extra kitchen utensils and vacuum sealer stuff in them.

Drying my own is the only way I know of to get either without added sugar. An added benefit is not having whatever the other thing is - sulfer dioxide? To protect color, maybe.

After we ran out of chaisins this spring, I tried canned peaches. That is our current second choice. Sadly, they have added sugar too. This year, I'm going to try canning some without sugar. I know at least some sugar is needed for them to hold their shape and color but in oatmeal maybe it won't matter if they don't hold their shape or color.

 

[Folly's place]

Clingstone peaches were at the farmer's market yesterday, but free stones not coming for a few weeks. Hate messing with clingstones! I make peach jam, might can some, and that great peach-blueberry jam recipe from here, years ago. Yummy! It's Hillbilly Hens' recipe, modified for low sugar surejell (sp?)
Mary

 

[1muttsfan]

It's hard to find good tart cherry jam, that is my favorite too

 

[Folly's place]

We grew a couple of North Star tart cherry trees at our previous house. Small, no way! At least 20'x 20', very much bigger than advertized. And wild birds got to the cherries before we wanted them, the trees needed netting if we wanted any...
Gave up on those trees, don't have any here.
Mary