I thought I was done with all my food preservation this year, but circumstances were out of my hands.
Really.
Take one of the last days of sunshine Oregon is likely to see for the next five months. Add in the irresistible allure of ripe, juicy apples. Season it all with the beautiful phrase “35 cents per pound” and, at no fault of my own, I end up with more apples.
One-hundred-and-one pounds of more apples.
So I donned my lovely apple apron
and got to work.
Today’s apple delicacy?
Dehydrated apple rings!
I love dehydrated apples. They are wonderful on oatmeal or in salads (make a simple olive oil and apple-cider vinegar dressing), if they last that long. We usually end up eating the whole lot before I can do anything else with them.
And just check out that funky-cool dehydrator. Don’t you just love the screens? They look like little window frames.
When I heard that an acquaintance from church was giving this baby away, I jumped in my car and drove right over. I had been searching for a good used dehydrator for awhile.
I tried to borrow my mom’s, but she told me that she had thrown it away. Apparently, she had loaned to someone else and it came back reeking of marijuana. And the smell wouldn’t come out. (Did I mention that we live in Oregon?) She did the right thing; my mom is nutty enough without throwing in some freaky kind of olfactory contact-high.
But back to my dehydrator. It looks old but it works great. And smells pretty good too. And it churns out a gallon-sized ziploc of apples per batch.
Tomorrow I’m making apple sauce and apple pie filling.
I’d ask my mom for canning jars, but…I’m too afraid.
