Over the weekend I stood out in a rainstorm and picked nine bags of Asian pears from my brother's four large trees. I had planned not to be greedy and take only two bags, but he said they usually ripen, drop and go to waste so take as many as I can possibly use. We filled all the bags in his house and only stopped when we ran out. What a gift! I bought one of these Asian pears at the store a couple weeks ago. It cost $3.89 a pound! OUCH! My brother kept reminding me, perhaps hoping to get me to take more, that these Asian pears are not sprayed and wonderfully organic.
He also gave me a bottle of homemade Asian pear wine he made last year with NO sulfates. Yum! It's the only alcohol I can drink because of the missing chemicals, but it is NOT on my diet because of the sugar content. I'll save it for a special occasion.
OK, so what does one person do with this many Asian pears? I started snacking immediately. I kept looking around me surrounded by bags, bowls, and buckets filled with them. I sold my canning supplies in the last yard sale (oops!), but I'm not really excited about canned food since I'm supposed to be on a non-processed food diet which is what prompted the sale. Still, I'd like to use as much as I can so they don't go to waste. I asked a friend and she said DRY THEM!
That sounded like a great idea even though I'm not supposed to have dried fruit because it contributes to my fatigue episodes, but hey, I have willpower. Right? I'll make dried fruit and store it away for a rainy day. Unfortunately, it rains a lot here.
I cut up a batch of Asian pears and put them in the dehydrator leaving them overnight. It will hold about ten pears in one batch.
They took 12 hours to dry, and it took me about two hours to eat the whole batch! They taste so wonderful, like little potato chip-size candies, solid sugar. I ate a
whole bag of chips and just kept wanting to go back for more. I feel an addiction coming on and I'm sure I'll pay for this!
Due to my incredible LACK of willpower, I plan to take at least half of my harvest to the food bank this week.
Yummy! How much did the dehydrator cost?
ReplyDeleteFree. A friend gave it to me years ago. I hardly ever use it maybe once a year, and in fact, thought about selling it in the last yard sale. Glad I didn't.
DeleteHave been thinking of getting one but it's very pricey!
DeleteMy friend gave me her dehydrator because she never used it. I'm guessing there are a lot of people who get them for gifts and they never get used. Do you have anything like Freecycle in Malaysia? Or some kind of online list where people recycle things? I think Freecycle is international but I'm not sure. I'll write a post on Freecycle since I just got a new project!
Delete