Organic Gardening Magazine

Your complete guide to gardening - naturally!

Drying time

Joyce Russell offers a modern solution to an age-old problem Pictures: Ben Russell

Did someone use the word glut? Could it refer to courgettes, or tomatoes perhaps?

Or even to the apples and pears that are ripening on the trees in the orchard, or the grapes in the greenhouse? Yes, it’s August and a time when even the most exotic fruit and vegetables can leave us saying: enough! Of course you can give the surplus away, you can freeze it, or use it to make jams and preserves, but you could also ring the changes and try drying some of that glorious glut.

Drying is the oldest technique for preserving fruit and vegetables, but judging by the queues to buy sundried tomatoes at my local market, it has plenty of 21st-century appeal as well.

Dried fruit and vegetables add a new dimension to the kitchen. This technique isn’t just a case of laying down ranks of dried peas to add to soups through the winter, it is also about making a few special treats. Try a platter of home-dried fruit to serve as a dessert. Cover semi-dried tomatoes with olive oil infused with a little garlic and guests will want to know where they can buy the same. You can even make your own dried and crushed vegetable base to use for stock.

At a minimum, all you need is some of the aforementioned glut, a bit of enthusiasm and a source of heat. If you get a passion for drying, however, you may want to take things a little further.

Next month I will look at how to dry and store a variety of fruit and vegetables. This month we will concentrate on choosing, or making, the best kind of drier.

• For the full story, see this month's issue, available to buy online!

Plan crop rotation

Copyright information

All content is © Mortons Media Group 2008 • Kitchen Garden magazine | Subscribe to OG | Buy current issue