The Osceola times., 1885-02-28
DRIED APPLE PEA

where the Apples Of which M.
Msds Come from. and How Th..
Prepared-The Dried Fruit Bu,,..
0Sneral.
People who live at boardins.hou...
poke fun at the dried apple p;., m
nished by their benevolent landlad,s.
and then eat the pies. In tins way va,
quantities of dried apples are consum.S
in the course Of year. "phers |, :.
use talking" said leading wholess,.,
who had been thinking some on tb,'
matter. "dried apples cut avsv ~
portant figure in trade-and 20, indesd
do dried fruits of all kinds-you'dI
astonished II you knew what prono-
tions he dried fruit business ~
reached. Millions of dollars are ipv.s
ed in it throughout the country. sn1
right here in St. Paul the sales oi drsS
fruits amount to several hundred doll,..
annually. That surprises you, but h,
so." There seems to be no doubt sbon
this. Dried fruits are always popul,,
when green fruits are out Of season. ,nd
in this section, where there is very linl.
fruit grown. there il always good a.
mand for them. There was q time
not very long ago-when about the opl,
kind. OF fruit put through the dryins
process was the apple. There wers
always plenty Of dried apples to b
had. New Englanders remember hov
the drying process was carried on
how the apples were pared and cut upy
and laved out on big trays in the mn
to dry. Sometimes they were strung IN
on long string, and hung in fsstoons
from the rafters in the attic; and when
the lady of the house wished TO baLs
up batch of dried apple pies for TIE
family, she would just cut yard o.
two off of one of the strings. The MAJ.
kets were supplied from all the farms
and the dried apple trade was grsak
business even in the olden time. The,
people began to dry other fruits mon
extensively, and processes were invented
known as evaporating processes BY
which large quantities of fruit wen
dried at once and in short space d
time. To-day nearly all kinds oftruit
are offered for sale in the dried state
the list including peaches, pears, plums
prunes, nectarines, blackberries, rasp
berries, cherries and grapes. Some
kinds of garden truck also undergo the
driving process, and dried pumpkin pie
can be had as well as dried apple pie.
The evaporating process hasn't revo.
lutionized by any means the old-fash-
ioned sun-dry ing process. Still, evapora-
ton has come TO be quite common on
large farms in the East and South. The
eysporators are of various kinds, but In
general appearance they are all The
same. At the bottom is furnace and
above it is high, narrow structure
which looks like a wooden chimney.
Within the chimney the evaporation y
carried on by one process or another.
In one of the most popular machines Of
the kind the fruit is carried along on ~
endless belt in trays which revolvs
above the heater until properly dried
Some evaporators can be taken to pecs.
and carried from place to place, anc
these are rented to farmers. Ihls
then, is the way evaporated fruit
turned out. II don't think there
much difference in the quality OF tn
machine dried stuff and the SUI
dried" was the opinion expresse
by the grocer. III you notic'
the evaporated fruit looks muc
clearer and more tempting than the SUI
dried. Something is used for bleachin
it. Select fruit is also generally u.s.
by the evaporators, and in the case
evaporated apples, the cores are clear
better from the fruit. don't think u
flavor is any better, however, and whs
it comes to the question OF cost, u
sun-dried fruit is much the cheapes
Oh. yes; the farmers still cure goo
deal of fruit in the old way, in fact, h
old method is the one most in use u
day, and never expect to see 1t abo
ished entirely" Now, the amount .
fruit laid out to dry in Minnesota woul
90 very little way toward suppiyini
even the local market The fruit use
here comes from distant parts-peache
from New Jersey, Delaware, Marylan'
and Pennsylvania; blackberries IRON
various Southern States; pears, plum
and nectarines from California. Fua
driving is big business, and there Is
good deal of money in II. The prom
on one hundred baskets of peaches io'
instance, is about forty dollars, and
farmer with proper facilities can PR
pare that amount in a day.-sf. faN
Pioneer Press.