Can I have some thorn apple seeds please if their are any going spare?
I nearly liberated a copy of I.burrows food from the wild the other day. It was in the musuem on display shelf not been read. But my children told me it would be very naughty to steel, so I didn't.
So I am going to liberate some origan grapes form a old ladies garden instead.
I do dehydrate them by removing the pit and keeping them in the machine till they're in a fairly hard state for long term drying - that is, far too tough for comfortable chewing, but ok for long term storage!I know exactly what you mean about chewy being nicer but our problem is that the softer ones usually get eaten quite quickly so I've never figured out how well they'd keep. One thing I did try was candying (rosehips in this instance but the idea's the same). They kept extremely well in a airtight container in the usual cool dark place, probably as long as 6 months IRRC before I used them in a flapjack mix along with dehydrated plums, apple, elderberries and cherries done by my usual method. I figured it was the suger solution that helped? I know the Chinese do dried plums preserved in honey, which sounds interesting & I'm trying to find out more about.
I'll have a scout around and get back to you if I uncover anything interesting.
Have you ever dried plums?
Because I am having trouble trying to work out how dry should they be for storage. I have some that are prune dry, sort of sticky in the middle and some that are raisin dry ie not sticky. I have quite a large quantity and don't want to risk them going funky. But the sticky ones are nicer.
