609 6 py 1 Home Drying of Fruits and i^ PURPOSE OF THIS BULLETIN HERE are many ways of sav- ing summer products for winter use. Of these, the drying of fruits and vegetables is but one. In issuing this bulletin, it is not intended to suggest the drying of products in preference to canning, pickling, preserving or storing, but simply to present drying as an economical and practical method of saving food, particularly when any of the other methods cannot be easily or economically adopted. This bulletin gives directions for drying many varieties of products. It is not expected that anyone will find it practical or profitable to dry everything mentioned, but from the long list given each housewife will be enabled to dry such products as she desires. HOME DRYING of FRUITS and VEGETABLES Compiled and Edited By Edgar W. Cooley of the Agricultural Extension Department Note — All or any portion of this booklet may be reproduced by yiving proper credit to tlie publishers Published and Copyrighted 1918 by INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COMPANY OF Nkw Jersey (Incukporatkd) AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION DEPARTMENT P. G. Hoi. DEN, Director HARVESTER BUILDING, CHICAGO >^. E. 498—8-1-18 Advantages of Ho me Drying HOME drying can be done by anyone, any- where, without extra expense for fuel or equipment and with very Httle extra work. 1. The process is simple — any boy or girl can make the equipment and do the drying. 2. No extra fuel is required — the drying can be done with the same heat used in carry- ing on the ordinary household duties. 3. Dried fruits and vegetables make whole- some food. 4. Drying preserves the flavor of the product. 5. Drying saves the product, saves storage space, saves transportation. The product is stored in ordinary paper sacks. 6. To dry food products is to save them for food. It is therefore patriotic as well as good business. 'ci.A5();{74;^ SEP 24 1918 HOME DRYING At no other time was it so important to dry or can fruit or vegetables in the home as it is this year, as commercially canned products will be hard to obtain. In a special bulletin, "Food Conservation," recently issued by the United States Department of Agriculture, the following statement, of greatest interest to every family, is made: "We are informed by the U. S. Govern- ment that it has con- tracted for (35 per cent of the output of the commercial canners of the country, and that the Allies will prob- ably take over the other 35 per cent. This information should induce Ameri- can housewives to preserve vegetables which are plentiful in the summer, for winter consumption." This situation em- phasizes the fact that waste is bad man- agement; saving is profitable. Those who would provide them- selves with plenty of fruits and vegetables next winter at a min- imum cost, must eliminate waste now and can or dry the surplus. First bottle contains fresh peas; second bottle same peas dried; third bottle same peas after being restored We Can Save Everything There isn't anything grown in the garden or orchard that we cannot save in some way. It can be pickled, or dried, or canned. It can be buried in the ground or in sand or sawdust in the cellar, or it can be simply put in the cellar. The over-abundance produced in the summer should be the normal supply of the winter, and the individual family should conduct drying on a liberal scale. Winter buying of vegetables and fruits is exceedingly costly, as you pay for transportation, cold storage and commission mer- The process of home drying described in this bulletin was developed by H. S. Mobley of the Agricultural Extension Department, International Har- vester Company of N. J. (Inc.), and has been used and demonstrated by him during the past 15 years. ANY FOOD PRODUCT CAN BE DRIED chants' charges and profits. Summer is the time of lowest prices and summer is. therefore, the time to buy for winter use. Home diving or canning of vegetables enables us to save what othenvise would be wasted in the home garden. For ex- ample: When we gather peas or beans, we should pick all that ai'e in condition, and if the surplus is too small to maiket. we should dry or can it. Drying can be done at httle or no extra cost for fuel, if we utihze the heat used in other home work. Any one can dry fruits and vegetables. It is our duty to dry. can or preserve in some manner every- thing that would be wasted. Little Storage Space Required DrxTUg was generally done by our ancestors but has been little practiced in recent years. It is important and economical in every farm. town, village or city home. To the city dwellers it has the special advantage that a gieat deal can be stored in a small space and at httle or no expense. One hundred pounds of vegetable food can be reduced to 10 pounds by drying. Any Food Product Can Be Dried Many things are better canned than dried: others are better dried than canned. But if we cannot get cans or jars enough for canning there is scarcely any food product that cannot be dried in the home with no other equipment than what everj" family possesses or can easily make. Drying saves the product, saves storage space, saves trans- portation. Dried products can be shipped anywhere — -to hot or cold countries, to the trenches. They may be kept anywhere, so long as they are in air-tight containers and are out of the reach of rats or mice, and will keep as long as the an does not reach them. Anyone who will carefully follow the simple directions can successfully dry and save any product. When desired for food Three pounds of rhubarb are reduced to a few ounces by drying SPECIAL EQUIPMENT NOT NECESSARY all products can be partly restored, many of them to nearly their original condition. The housewife who takes vegetables fresh from the garden and follows directions, being careful not to use too much heat in drying, will find, when she restores the diied prrxluct, that she has preserved all the taste and nutrition originally contained in the green vegetables. Some of the points in drying cannot be explained — they can be learned only by doing the work yourself. But do not be confused or discouraged by this for the pnxess is very simple and it will be a matter of suiprise to you how easily it can be done and the different conditions overcome. The products that can be dried are almost innumerable. The Ust embraces ever>i;hing from the garden and orchard, including tomatoes, watermelons, and cantaloupes. It includes such highly perishable products as eggs, cream, cottage cheese and lean meats. Expensive Equipment Not Necessary The equipment for drying is as simple as the method. It consists of three frames such as any boy can make, any kind of a cook stove: a pot or pan or a tin bucket: a wire basket, or a flour sack, or even a piece of cheese cloth that can be fashioned into the shape of a bag by bringing the four corners together: a few pie pans, some dinner plates and an earthenware dish or jar. Each of the frames should be about 27 inches long. 14 inches wide and 1 ^ 2 inches deep. The sides and ends can be made of wood, and the bottom should be of galvanized window screen wire, fastened with double pointed tacks. The rack and harness shown in the cut were made by an eight-yeai" old boy and what a young boy can do. anyone can do. The heat from the stove goes up readily from the center and if the racks are too long, the product in the ends will not dry as Two pounds of cottage cheese before drjring; after drying weighs six ounces 8 HOW TO MAKE A DRYING RACK rapidly as the rest. Just make the rack to fit the stove. We must keep the racks clean. If they are any wider than 14 inches they cannot be placed in an ordinary dishpan. When you are through using the racks hang them on a nail in the pantry. How to Make a Drying Rack Get two pieces of small sized rope, or window weight cord, each six feet long. Tie the ends of each piece together, making two loops, each exactly 30 inches long. (Figure 2.) Place one loop around one end of the frame; the other loop around the other end (Figure 4). Bring the upper ends of the loops together and fasten them with a third loop, or doubled rope, sufficiently long to reach from a few feet above the stove to a firm hook in the ceiling (Figure 3). Near each end of a block of wood 8 inches long and 13^2 inches wide, bore a hole large enough to let the doubled rope pass through easily. Pass the end of the upright rope through one hole and shove the block down to the junction of the two loops (Figure 3) . Tie a knot in the upright rope to keep the lower end of the block from shpping up; then pass the double rope through the upper hole in the block (Figure 1 ) . Place the upper end of the upright loop over the hook in the ceiling. The purpose of the block of wood is to make it easy to adjust the height of the frame. To raise the frame, pull the rope through the upper hole in the block until the desired height is reached, then fasten the frame in place by looping the "slack" of the rope around the upper end of the block as shown in Figure 5. Place two loops of rope, each about 20 inches long, around the suspended frame, one loop at each end, and let them hang down. In the lower ends of these loops, place the second frame and suspend the third frame from the second in the same manner as shown in cut on page 10. Three Frames Save Time and Fuel By using three frames the housewife will be able -to -save both time and fuel in drying a quantity of vegetables. For instance if she is drying peas, she can prepare enough to fill one f^rame and let them be drying while shelling, blanching and cold dipping another batch. When the second frame is spread with peas, those placed in the first frame will have been drying for about 25 minutes. This frame can then be raised until the second frame, suspended from it, is the same distance above the stove the first frame had been. When the third frame of peas are ready to dry, the second will have been drying about 25 minutes and the first about 50 minutes, but more slowly. Frames 1 and 2 are again raised until No. 3 is suspended the right distance from the stove. When the peas in the third frame are sufficiently dried, those in the second frame, which have been drying for 25 minutes longer ROPE HARNESS FOR DRYING FRAME METHOD OF CONSTRUCT- ING ROPE HAR- NESS FOR DRY- ING FRAME. These five figures illustrate various steps described on page 8. Read direc- tions carefully and follow them and you will find it easy. 10 CIRCULATION OF AIR ESSENTIAL but the most of the time at a lower temperature, and those in tlie first frame, which have been drying 50 minutes longer but at a still lower temperature, will have been dried to about the same extent. All the frames can then be removed and emptied and the process begun over again. Never start the three racks to drying at the same time. In drying products no iron bound rule can be followed, as conditions depend upon the weather, the maturity of the product, the amount of moisture in the product, whether the products where gathered in the morning or in the afternoon, whether they are fresh or wilted, and whether they are large or small in size. Circulation of Air Important You must remember you can scarcely find two batches of vegetables and fruit exactly alike and this fact varies the time necessary to dry them. Much depends, also, upon the regularity with which the heat is applied. The main thing is to be sure there is enough air circulating or the vegetable will never get dry. The air must circulate freely. In using coal or wood for fuel, never take the lids oflP the stove. In using gas or coal oil, if there are lids on the stove re- move them and always keep the flame as low as possible. You will be surprised at how low the flame can be used. In drying any kind of products the same general process is followed, although the details may vary. But to maintain the original taste of the fruit or vegetable, drying should never be done at a higher temperature than 120 degrees Fahrenheit. All experiments have shown that if a greater heat is used, there is danger of burning the product and the delicate taste is sure to be destroyed. Method of suspending three drying frames with rope harness DON'T USE TOO MUCH HEAT 11 Too Much Heat Injures Flavor Here is a simple test for determining whether the rack is too hot: Place the palm of your hand against the under side of the bottom of the rack. If you are inclined to jerk your hand away, the rack is too hot and it should be raised to a greater distance from the stove. Don't be afraid of using too little heat but always be afraid of using too much heat. Drying in the sun is all right but it takes too long. A product that will dry over a stove in three hours will require three days to dry in the sun. There is no rule by which to ascertain when products are thoroughly dried. Some think products when sufficiently dried will rattle when you lift them up, but this is not a safe test in all cases. The best way to judge is to fmd out by experience — by drying something until you think it is dry enough and then examining it every few days to see if it is molding. The cracker test is a fairly reliable one. Put a cracker in the bag for a few days when you put the product away. If the product is not dry enough, the cracker will be moist. But remember all tests fail. You must learn by trying and you will fmd it easy. There is little danger of your drying anything too much if you do not use too much heat, follow directions and use judgment. If you are called away from the kitchen for a considerable length of time and the article being dried is not yet dry, turn out the burner, put a cloth over the frame and leave it. When you return go on with the drying. Do the same way if you leave it overnight. The product should be covered with a cloth to keep moths and flies ofT. During the drying process all products will appear to stick to the rack, and the person doing the drying will be inclined to pull the product loose with the fingers. Some people fail for that reason. The product should be let alone until thoroughly dry, when it will come loose very readily. Brief directions for drying a number of different products follow and from these the housewife can determine how to dry any fruit or vegetable by following the method employed in drying products of like nature. Vegetables, like corn, beans, peas, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, and parsnips should be blanched. They are blanched by being placed in a wire basket, a flour sack or in a piece of cheese-cloth or towel, the ends of which have been twisted together to form a sack, and then placed in boiling water for about eight minutes. They must then be removed and cold-dipped by plunging them at once into cold water and letting them remain there one minute. Sweet corn should be blanched on the cob, then the kernels cut ofl" and spread to the depth of about one-quarter of an inch upon the bottom of the drying frame. DIRECTIONS FOR DRYING PRODUCTS 13 Carrots, parsnips and potatoes should be scraped and sliced before blanching, then carefully drained of moisture and placed in the drying frames. Only very tender cairots should be dried. Squash and pumpkins — Cut into inch slices, peel off rind, chop into pieces Y^ inch thick. Spread in rack and dry. Beans — In preparing and selecting product follow method employed in Cold Pack Canning. Never dry tough beans or beans with very much string on the pod. Break off tip ends, blanch, and dry whole, pods and all. If some pods are tough, do not throw them away. Hull them and dry the beans. Peas — HuU before blanching. Spread on rack to dry. In drying peas you will have some little peas and some big ones. The little ones will shrivel up: the big ones won't. Sort the peas. Put the big ones in one tray and the little ones in another tray. Natur- ally the smaller the thing, the quicker it will dry. Five quarts of peas in the pod will be sufficient, when they are hulled, to fill a frame. Cabbage can be dried but it is better to preserve it in the form of kraut. The process to be observed in drying other vegetables and fruits follows: Beets — Do not blanch as blanching causes them to bleed and they lose some of their nutritive value. They should be peeled, washed, sliced, and laid in the frame to dry. Rhubarb — Do not blanch. Wash, drain, slice in small pieces and dry. Rhubarb does not need to be peeled if it is tender. In vegetables, apples, and peaches, the mineral salt and most of the nutrition are next to the peeling and if we peel them we destroy some of these qualities. Greens — Do not blanch. Wash, drain off moisture and dry whole. The only exception to this is that Swiss Chard or any other greens having a thick stem, should be cut up into half-inch pieces. Asparagus — Cut off all that portion that would be tough when cooked. Cut the remainder into Yi or %-inch lengths and dry without blanching. Pint of cream in original state and the quantity in dried form 14 DRYING CREAM, COTTAGE CHEESE AND MEATS Tomatoes — Select firm and ripe, not watery fruit. Wash, slice, lay in rack and dry. Plums — ^\Vash, remove pit, cut into quarters, spread in rack. Cherries — Wash, remove pit, dry whole. Strawberries — Spread in racks and allow to remain until no moisture comes from the berry when it is mashed between the fingers. Large berries may be cut in two. Dry all other berries in same manner. Wild fruits — Use same process as in drying cultivated fruits. Persimmons, figs and the old "Possum Apple" can also be dried. Miscellaneous Products The process of drying cream, cottage cheese, eggs and meats is equally simple. Cream — Cover the bottom of a pie pan to the depth of about a quarter of an inch with the cream; set in rack and dry about eight horns or until you can see the oily cream is free of all water. Cottage cheese — Cover the bottom of the rack with cheese cloth; spread the cottage cheese on the cloth to the depth of about a quaiter of an inch; dry for about four hours, or until the cheese becomes yellowish £md grainy. Eggs — Break the eggs into a crock or dish and beat until the whites and yolks are thoroughly mixed; pour into pie-pans to the depth of a quarter of an inch. Set pans in rack and let dry until egg forms a thick paste. Run paste through a meat chopper and grind it to a putty-like powder. Put the powder back into the pie-tins and chy for about an hour. Meat — Any kind of lean meat — not fat meat — can be dried. Cut up the meat and grind it in a meat chopper; spread on a piece of cheese-cloth and place in rack to dry. All products, if properly dried, will keep indefinitely if placed in air-tight containers, which need not be sterilized. Glass jars or bottles, should be thoroughly washed. Vegetables and fruit, except watermelon, can be put away in paper bags that have been made absolutely air-tight by an application of paraffin. Cut up two ounces of paraffin and dissolve it overnight in eight ounces of gasohne. With a small paint brush cover the bags all over on the outside, with the paraffin. Let the bags dry for two days in the open air before using. Place in Sacks Put in each sack enough of the dried product for two meals for your family ; tie up sack so it will be air-tight as shown in cut. Hang up anywhere or put on shelf out of the way of rats and mice. HOW TO STORE DRIED PRODUCTS 15 The inexperienced housewife putting dried products away in bags, should examine them every three or four days for about two weeks, or until she knows they are keeping. If any mold shows, the product should be immediately spread in the rack and dried some more. Eggs, cream, meat and watermelon should be put away in glass, never in paper. Use four or five-ounce wide-mouth bottles and keep tightly corked. Put cottage cheese away in paper bag. It is not safe to beheve that when products are put away in glass, moisture will show on the glass if they are not thoroughly dry. The moisture may be caused by other things. To restore dried products it is well to remember that the longer the article has been dried, the longer it should be soaked. A good method is to spread product on a level pan or plate and barely cover with water. Once soaked until they have been restored to about their original condition, dried vegetables and fruit can be cooked in about the same manner as though they were fresh. Try cooking in the same water in which they were soaked, with a little additional water added. Also try cooking in fresh water and use the method which the better suits your taste. Most dried vegetables should be cooked rather slowly. Try cooking both ways — slowly and rapidly — and decide the way you like better. Follow no set rule. Rather take an interest in your work, use your judgment and acquire skill in finding a method of your own. To Restore Products The best process of restoring various products is as follows, it being understood that the relative amounts of water and prod- uct given here are only approximate and will vary according to Five quarts of strawberries before and after drying 16 COOK DRIED VEGETABLES SLOWLY conditions. Observation and judgment will easily determine the amount of water needed in each case. Snap-beans — Soak from eight to 12 hours in 10 pints of water to one pint of dried product. Beets — Soak two hours in two pints of water to one pint of product. Corn — Soak from two to four hours in two pints of water to one pint of product. If soaked longer than four hours keep product very cool as there is danger of its souring. Irish and sweet potatoes — Soak from six to eight hours in eight pints of water to one pint of product. Rhubarb — Soak from six to eight hours in 12 pints of water to one pint of product. Spinach and other greens — Cook slowly without soaking, or soak two to six hours. Try both methods and follow the one that suits you better. Okra— Soak until soft. Onions — Cook slowly without soaking. Carrots — Cook slowly. No soaking necessary. Parsnips — Soak two to four hours, using two parts of water to one of product. Squash or pumpkin — Soak eight to 12 hours in 10 parts of water to one of product. Turnips — Use eight parts of water to one part of product. Bring slowly to boiling point, boil about 20 minutes. Cherries — Soak six to eight hours in four parts of water to one part of product. Strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc. — Soak four to five hours in six parts of water to one part of dried product. Half dozen eggs before and after drying RESTORE BY ADDING WATER 17 Eggs — Put in earthen vessel, cover with water, but not enough to make product float: let stand over night. Can be used in any manner in which eggs are used, except for poaching, boiling, or in any cooking where the white and yolk are used separately. Cottage cheese — Cover flat pan 3^ inch deep with product and barely cover with water. Let it stand two hours. Do not use milk to restore it as it is only the water that has been evapor- ated. Cream — Can be used in its dried form for cooking and sea- soning. The Visual Method of Instruction The Big Idea in Education Characterized in I H C Lecture Charts and Lantern Slides SIMPLE— LOGICAL— IMPRESSIVE-PRACTICAL USED EVERYWHERE —In Community and Home — Rural School and College — On the Farm and In the Factory — By Teacher, Pupil, Farmer, Banker and Merchant I H C CHARTS OR SLIDES LOANED FREE On these conditions — that you have a plan for using them, pay express charges from Chicago and return, and report all meetings at the end of each week CHARTS OR SUDES FURNISHED ON THE FOLLOWING SUBJECTS: 8. Weeds Mean Waste. 9. Home Economics and Sanitation. 10. Fight the Fly. 1 1. Great ForwrardMovemert in Education. 12. Diversified Farming for the Souili. 13. Home Canning. 14. Development of Agriculture — (No. 14 in LaiuerQ Slides only.) 1. Com is King 2. Alfalfa on Every Farm. 3. A Fertile Soil Means a Prosperous People. 4. Live Stock on Every Feirm. 5. Dairying. 6. Greater Profit from the Oat Crop. 7. Make More from Your Farm Poultry. CHARTS I H C lecture charts are 70 inches long by 63 inches wide, made of a good grade of sheeting, printed in clear black letters, which can easily be read at a distance of 100 feet or more. They are arranged for setting up and taking down quickly and conveniently. Sets contain from ten to fifteen charts. Each set with iron stand, pointer, and lecture book, is packed in a canvas case. Weight, 35 lbs. LANTERN SLIDES Lantern slide sets, 50 to 60 slides, plain and in colors. Weight, 15 lbs. Lecture Books Furnished For the information and direction of lecturers, each set contains an illustrated lecture book outlining in brief form the story of each chart or slide. :.|LF4 BAl.AVvL'S THE sole object of the Agricultural Extension Department of the Inter- national Harvester Company is to help YOU make YOUR work more effective. It is not a matter of making money out of charts, slides, booklets, or any other material prepared and published by the Department. The Extension Department was not organized to make sales. But we do want to work with people who are in earnest; who really want to do some- thing worth while. Circuits formed to reduce express charges. Write for plan. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ADDRESS International Harvester Company of New Jersey, Inc. Agricultural Extension Department CHICAGO Educational Publications PRINTED AND DISTRIBUTED BY The I H C Agricultural Extension Department Harvester Building, Chicago Furnished Upon Receipt of Amounts Quoted Below. Quantity Lots Sent Transportation Charges Collect. NAME Pages Single Copies Quantities Each Each Getting a Start with Alfalfa in the Corn Belt. 12 $0.02 $0.01 Getting a Start with Alfalfa in the Northwest. 36 02 01 Sweet Clover in the Northwest 38 02 01 Seed Corn, Do You Know It Will Grow 28 02 01 I H C Demonstration Farms in the North .... 46 Free 01 I H C Demonstration Farms in the South. ... 20 Free 01 Hog Cholera 12 02 01 Humus — The Life of the Soil 12 02 01 Storing Sweet Potatoes 8 02 01 Dip the Cattle Tick 18 02 01 Home Bulletin 24 02 01 Helps for Wash Day 20 02 01 Cold Pack Canning 28 03 02 The Pit Silo 28 02 01 Sweet Clover 68 05 04 Diversified Farming is Safe Farming 32 05 04 Boll Weevil 32 05 04 For Better Crops in the South 100 05 04 For Better Crops 160 05 04 We Must Feed Ourselves 52 05 04 A Silo on Every Farm 52 10 06 Cow Makes Farming More Profitable 128 15 10 Literature Especially Suited to Schools Grow a Garden 8 Free $0.10 doz. Poultry is Profitable 12 " " Making Money from Pigs 8 " " A Pig for Every Boy 4 " ' " Fly Catechism 4 " $.30 per 100 Pages Single Copies Quantities Studies in Alfalfa 32 $0.05 $0.04 Story of Bread 32 05 04 Creeds of Great Business Men 46 05 04 Binder Twine Industry 48 20 15 Harvest Scenes of the World 150 50 35 Stencils — Paper patterns 3-ft. square for re- producing large charts. Subjects: Corn, Poultry, Oats, Soil, Weeds, Educational, The Fly, Alfalfa, Dairying, Live Stock, Can- ning. Per Set of 10 to 15 sheets on each subject SO per set Fly Trap Pattern 05 The "Rag Doll" for Testing Seed Corn — Per Doz. Cloth 10 $0.75 Paper Sample Free 05 Germination Cloth for Saw Dust Box — Cloth 20 Paper Sample Free 10 Send for our new^ catalog containing descriptions, illustrations and a complete list of all literature published by the Agricultural Extension Department. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 014 422 483 9 i \m HARVESTER PBESS