It's that season again! Strawberry season! And that means picking at Larriland, our local western Howard County pick-your-own farm.
Lucky for us, this spring has brought a bumper crop of strawberries to the farm. When we picked last Friday, the berries were huge, juicy, and abundant. The season will last until at least mid-June, so if you still want to pick, it's not too late. Make sure you check the website before leaving home: www.pickyourown.com. The site is updated throughout the day.
Since I already had a large container of strawberries at home, I decided to dehydrate some before they went bad. With strawberries as juicy and delicious as the ones we picked at Larriland, I prefer to eat them fresh. But the ones in the fridge from Costco were going to rot if I didn't do something with them right away.
Last summer, I purchased an enormous dehydrator in order to preserve my gigantic pear harvest. Then I proceeded to dehydrate apple slices, sage leaves, kale chips, and just about anything I could get my grubby hands on. But I never got a chance to try strawberries until now.
My booklet said to dry berries at a temperature of 135F for 6-12 hours. This is a pretty large range, so I wasn't sure how long they'd take. At the 6 hour mark, I was ready to go to bed. Since they weren't finished drying, I turned the temperature down to about 115F and left them going for the night. When I got up in the morning, they'd had a total of 14 hours drying time.
The texture of the dried berries is slightly leathery. I like the chewiness, so I'm going to stop at this point and just store them in the freezer, as I do all my dried fruits. No matter how dry they appear, any residual moisture could cause fungus to grow, so I don't take a chance. Most of the dried fruit you purchase at the store has preservatives added. I didn't add anything to the berries before drying-- just sliced them into 1/2-1/4 inch pieces.
The flavor of the dried strawberries is awesome! Slightly tart, slightly sweet, like an explosion of strawberriness on your tongue. I'm going back to Larriland as soon as I can to pick some more berries and get some more use out of my dehydrator!
#hocofood
hocofood@@@
Lucky for us, this spring has brought a bumper crop of strawberries to the farm. When we picked last Friday, the berries were huge, juicy, and abundant. The season will last until at least mid-June, so if you still want to pick, it's not too late. Make sure you check the website before leaving home: www.pickyourown.com. The site is updated throughout the day.
Since I already had a large container of strawberries at home, I decided to dehydrate some before they went bad. With strawberries as juicy and delicious as the ones we picked at Larriland, I prefer to eat them fresh. But the ones in the fridge from Costco were going to rot if I didn't do something with them right away.
Last summer, I purchased an enormous dehydrator in order to preserve my gigantic pear harvest. Then I proceeded to dehydrate apple slices, sage leaves, kale chips, and just about anything I could get my grubby hands on. But I never got a chance to try strawberries until now.
My booklet said to dry berries at a temperature of 135F for 6-12 hours. This is a pretty large range, so I wasn't sure how long they'd take. At the 6 hour mark, I was ready to go to bed. Since they weren't finished drying, I turned the temperature down to about 115F and left them going for the night. When I got up in the morning, they'd had a total of 14 hours drying time.
The flavor of the dried strawberries is awesome! Slightly tart, slightly sweet, like an explosion of strawberriness on your tongue. I'm going back to Larriland as soon as I can to pick some more berries and get some more use out of my dehydrator!
#hocofood
hocofood@@@
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