Los Angeles daily herald., 1886-08-26
PRUNE AND APRICOT DRYING
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A correspondent Of the Rural Pres
| gives his experience OF fruit drying in
| Los Angeles county, from which others
| nav draw a lesson. He says. Not find.
| Ing an answer to the querist OF San Jose
in regard to apricot and prune drying
by which might have learned some
| thing, | will answer myself "a far as my
experience goes. While / raise most
kind OF fruit adapted to this locality,
apricots and and prunes are my special
| ty But am getting rid of my apricot
| trees as fast as l can graft them into
prunes, for reasons herein mentioned.
Last season was the first time my crop
amounted to enough to make it an OBJ
iect to dry it, Let me first speak of my
experience with aprioots. During the
season | had, besides my two boys and
myself, from four to six boys and women
hired to pick ana cut them. The pick.
ing of them is very annoying job, on
| account of their having to be picked at
their proper stage of ripeness, which is
Just before they get soft. Before that
they will be insipid, aud two days after
that they will turn dark in drying. so
you have to pick about four different
times from each tree, and move your
stepladder from three to five different
times at each tree.
When they were brought to the house
the women would cut and lay them on
10 trays (size 2x3 feet, of which l used
250), and put in the sun until we had a
of them, which number would fill my
smoke house. Then q sulphur.slip about
foot long, such as wine makers use,
was fired and laid on the ground under
the trays, the door shut and left till an.
other batch was ready to go in, and
then laid in the sun. The trays were
stacked about shutdown and spread out
again thenext morning, until the fruit was
dry enough to rattle, when l put them in
to sugar barrels upstairs. This was a
great blunder. On account of the bulk,
in going through the sweat, two-thirds
Of them turned dark; but the worst Of
all was, that notwithstanding l had my
barrels covered with cloths and sacks,
tho little millers got in and in two weeks
they were badly infested with worms
SO we had quite job overhauling them,
grading, cleaning and throwing away
about ten per cent. of them. Besides all
this, while they were drying the bees
would suck the juice out OF many OF
| them and only leave skeleton.
After going through all this pressed
them into 25 and 50.pound boxes, in
which they kept very well. But | still
have about half OF them on hand, and
am selling them at s, 10 and II cents
per pound. according to grade.
rRUNRs.
Now, with the prunes the story is Of
a different character You may let them
hang on the tree till they begin to drop
fast, then shake the tree and pick them
up; put them into basket which goes
easily into your wash.boiler, which you
have filed with boiling water, in
which you have put enough concentrat
ed lye to make it little slippery. Dip
in your basket up and down for about
two minutes then let them drip half
minute, and rinse them thoroughly in
| tub of clean, fresh water. Spread
them on your trays and let them dry a
little, and they are ready to go into the
smokehouse. Then treat them the same
as you would apricots, but be sure and
not let them get too dry. When they
are still sofl they will do to pack, as
there is no rot in them, and no insects
have disturbed mine.
The sulphuring of them is not essen
tial, but it gives them little pleasanter
color.
My smokehou,e is a very cheap affair.
1t is simply box with tight fitting
door in front, seven feet high, three feet
wide inside and two feet four inches
deep, with cleats nailed to the sides
to take in fourteen trays, which
are alternately showed in, one to go to
the back and the next to the door.
can do better to sell prunes at five
cents per pound han apricots at fifteen
cents, and If | had to buy the | would
sooner pay fifteen cents for tirst.class
prunes than five cents for apricots.
This, however, is O matter OF taste.