This past week when visiting friends, we were offered some of the grapes that were growing as a carport. What a beautiful gift to be given! I took a bag full. They also offered us some apples from a tree that had split and fallen down. I’m amidst so much processing of food at the moment that I didn’t take too much of either offering. What I did take however, I turned into something wonderful!
I juiced the grapes and then poured the remaining mash through a strainer, mashing it with a spoon to extract as much juice and fine pulp as I could. I ended up with 24oz. The remaining pulp was enjoyed by my chickens!
Then I took 24 apples, cored them and put them through the food processor, mixing them with the grape juice to help the processor blend the fruit better. I blend the fruit until it is very smooth, like a store bought applesauce texture.
This makes for a thinner and more flexible end product. I poured the mixture (done in two batches) out on Excalibur teflex sheets to dehydrate at 145˚ for 45 minutes to warm it up, then at 115˚ overnight. This technique drastically reduces drying time, but doesn’t heat the food enough in the initial 45 minutes to ‘cook’ it, so it remains a raw food. The result was great. If I were to make it again though, I would use less apples for the amount of grape juice I had, just to make it taste more like grapes. If I didn’t have too much to do already, I’d be out there foraging for more grapes and apples!
[…] result of nearly two months of work (salsa, salsa verde, a variety of soups, dried tomatoes, fruit leathers, fermented tomato sauce, fermented beets, stewed tomatoes, watermelon jerky, sauerkraut, fermented […]