Growing food at home is highly rewarding and unbelievably empowering. Many folks begin and end this journey with the summer vegetable garden, but there are lots of other ways to produce food in your yard.
Edible landscaping and permaculture can fill our world, especially an urban and suburban world. Yards can be cultivated with food forests full of fruit and nut trees, with flower beds teeming with edible blooms, and with berry canes splaying to make productive hedges. Vines would be climbing up porch posts. Food could be everywhere.
And, with a world like that, we could easily imagine making our own raisins, “craisins”, and whatever else fits into such a dried fruit category. Blueberries, elderberries, and currants all make similar raisin-like delights to put in our cookies, oatmeal, muffins, and various other treats. Or, we could eat them as is.
Growing the Right Plants
Of course, raisins come from grapes, so it’ll help to stick a grapevine or few around the house or even on the apartment balcony. There are grape vines hardy enough to grow successfully anywhere in the continental US.
Having a healthy collection of berries to dry like raisins is also a great idea. Blueberries are delicious fresh, but a few bushes can provide enough to require preserving some. Cranberries are a great option for those in colder, moister climates. Elderberries are awesome trees/shrubs that grow and produce very quickly. They love water, too.
Currants are another great choice, both red and black. They make wonderful hedges and are best dehydrated. Cherries are fantastic dried, so a cherry tree could be a good addition. Plums make giant “raisins” called prunes.
Dehydrating for safe-keeping
Each fruit or berry will require alterations in time and temperature to go from fresh fruit to raisin-like morsel, but the basic premise is the same for all: Low heat and dry air for an extended amount of time.
Some homesteaders keep things rustic and use the sun for drying their grapes and whatnot. This requires nothing more than a cookie sheet and a cooling rack. Spread the fruit on the racks, cover them with a thin cloth, and stick them out in the sun on hot, dry days. This will take about five days.
They can also be dried in the oven. Put the oven on a low temperature, crack the door open, and allow them to dry for several hours. For keen raisin enthusiasts, a quality dehydrator isn’t so expensive, and it can be used to make raisins, fruit leather, dried herbs, dehydrated vegetables, and more. A dehydrator will need to run for about 24 hours.
It’s also possible to make a solar dehydrator that works faster than just the sun but doesn’t require electricity like store-bought dehydrators.
Using Your “Raisins”
Raisins, “craisins”, prunes, dried blueberries, currants, sultanas (dried white grapes), elderberries, and dehydrated cherries are all fantastic fodder on the pantry shelf. Plus, they last for a long time without spoiling, so they’ll be waiting for the right recipe.
Here are some classics:
And, here are some less conventional twists, including savory dishes:
Make Your Raisins
In short, don’t let those grow-your-own-food aspirations stop at the veggie patch. Fruit can be a huge part of home food production, and with many fruits, there is the opportunity to dehydrate them for later use. That means you can still be eating from the garden in the depths of winter!
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