How do you dry fruit from the garden to make it last for months?

Dried fruit concentrates flavour, reduces weight dramatically, and keeps for six to twelve months without refrigeration. Apples become chewy and sweet, plums transform into prunes, and tomatoes shrink into intensely savoury morsels. Drying is particularly valuable for stone fruit and apples when you have more than you can use fresh but not enough for a full batch of jam or bottled preserves.

The basic principle is identical to drying vegetables — remove moisture slowly at a low temperature until the fruit is leathery and pliable with no moist spots inside. Too fast and the outside dries before the inside, leading to case hardening where the outside is sealed but the inside remains wet enough to spoil. Too slow in a humid environment and mould develops before drying completes.

Which fruits dry best?

Apples, pears, plums, damsons, cherries, figs, and grapes all dry excellently. Apricots, if you grow them, produce the best home-dried fruit of all. Raspberries and strawberries dry well but become very sweet and concentrated — excellent mixed into granola. Gooseberries and currants dry successfully but are quite tart unless the batch is very ripe. Tomatoes, though technically a vegetable in culinary terms, are one of the most rewarding fruits to dry — small varieties like cherry tomatoes halved and dried become intensely flavourful sun-dried tomatoes.

Preparing fruit for drying

Wash all fruit thoroughly and cut into even pieces. Apples and pears should be peeled, cored, and sliced 5–8mm thick — thin enough to dry through but thick enough to remain pliable rather than turning papery. Stone fruit should be halved and stones removed; small plums and damsons can be dried whole but will take much longer. Halved cherry tomatoes are placed cut-side up on drying trays to prevent juice from running out during drying.

Apples and pears brown quickly once cut. Dipping slices in a solution of one tablespoon of lemon juice per litre of water for five minutes prevents most browning and adds a very slight citrus note. Drain and dry before placing on racks. Alternatively, a brief dip in a light sugar syrup adds sweetness and helps slices dry to a glossy, confection-like result.

Oven drying fruit

Set your oven to 55–70°C and arrange fruit in a single layer on wire racks over baking trays. The airflow under the rack is essential — fruit resting on solid trays dries from the top only and often sticks. Prop the oven door slightly open to allow steam to escape. Flip the fruit every two hours. Apples typically take six to eight hours; plum halves take twelve to eighteen hours; cherry tomatoes take four to six hours. The finished fruit should be leathery, pliable, and not sticky in the centre when cut.

Dehydrator drying

A dehydrator set to 57–63°C produces consistently good results and is more energy-efficient than an oven for long drying sessions. Rotate the trays every few hours if your dehydrator does not have a fan that circulates air evenly. The longer, lower drying process in a dehydrator often produces better flavour than oven drying because volatile aromatics are lost more slowly.

Storing and using dried fruit

After drying, leave fruit to cool completely on the racks, then pack loosely into glass jars for a one-week conditioning period. Shake jars daily — if condensation forms, return fruit to the dehydrator. Once conditioned, pack tightly into airtight containers and store in a cool, dark cupboard. Eat directly as a snack, chop into porridge or yoghurt, or rehydrate in warm water for thirty minutes before using in cooking.