Report - lazy blueberries
Jan. 21st, 2012 05:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
susan8020On New Year's Day 2012, I finally emptied the dried blueberries out of the dehydrator. They are wonderful. Very dry and crisp and have a concentrated, roasted flavor like the burnt raisins on top of gingerbread.
These were the first blueberries that showed up in the stores in early summer 2011. Then they tasted unripe, watery. I tasted a few from the dehydrator every week or so but they still weren't as good as they should be, even the ones that got that lovely mold that smells like summer.
I didn't want to take the berries out still chewy, didn't know how to store them so they wouldn't get bad mold all over. So they've stayed in the dehydrator, on warm, for over 6 months.
Also I couldn't think how to decant them without them bouncing away.
Today I'm doing year end filing. Had an empty plastic file box, so I lined it with paper towel and decanted the berries onto that, then rolled them up in the paper towel and put them in a Ziploc freezer bag (well really a Walmart freezer bag).
They are addictive, wonderful. I suppose some that were bought in the right season and ripeness would have dried even better. Must find out....
Next year I'll keep buying blueberries and adding them to the dehydrator as the first batch dries and shrinks. And I'll put some kind of liner in the lowest tray to keep the shrinking berries from falling through and down below the heating coil, because those came out a little chewy instead of crisp.
Now to pack up the dehydrator and free some work surface, till the 2012 blueberries come in.
These were the first blueberries that showed up in the stores in early summer 2011. Then they tasted unripe, watery. I tasted a few from the dehydrator every week or so but they still weren't as good as they should be, even the ones that got that lovely mold that smells like summer.
I didn't want to take the berries out still chewy, didn't know how to store them so they wouldn't get bad mold all over. So they've stayed in the dehydrator, on warm, for over 6 months.
Also I couldn't think how to decant them without them bouncing away.
Today I'm doing year end filing. Had an empty plastic file box, so I lined it with paper towel and decanted the berries onto that, then rolled them up in the paper towel and put them in a Ziploc freezer bag (well really a Walmart freezer bag).
They are addictive, wonderful. I suppose some that were bought in the right season and ripeness would have dried even better. Must find out....
Next year I'll keep buying blueberries and adding them to the dehydrator as the first batch dries and shrinks. And I'll put some kind of liner in the lowest tray to keep the shrinking berries from falling through and down below the heating coil, because those came out a little chewy instead of crisp.
Now to pack up the dehydrator and free some work surface, till the 2012 blueberries come in.
