he
pit has been removed, lay on drier pit side up. The juice of the fruit
will collect in the pit or "cup" and will add to the flavor and
quality of the dried peaches. The peaches can be cut into smaller
pieces if you wish to lessen the drying period.

Plums and apricots are not peeled, but are cut into halves, the pits
removed and dried in the same way as peaches. Small, thin-fleshed
varieties of plums are not suitable for drying.

When drying cherries always remove the stems. The pits may or may not
be removed. The best product for later cooking or eating has the pit
removed, though large quantities of juices are lost in the pitting
unless you provide some way of saving and utilizing it.

A prune is simply a plum having certain qualities not possessed by all
plums. All prunes are plums, but not all plums are prunes. The final
test as to whether a plum is a prune is the ability to dry without
fermenting with the pit still remaining in the fruit. If a plum cannot
dry without fermentation unless the pit is removed, it is not a prune.
Prunes for drying, like other fruits, should be fully ripe.

Prunes are merely washed and then dried without removing the pits. The
fruit is dry when the skin is well shrunken. The texture should be
firm but springy and pliable enough to yield readily when pressed in
the hand. The drying should not be continued until the individual
prunes rattle as they are brought in contact with one another in
handling. Prunes must be conditioned before storing.

In drying, prunes shrink about two-thirds in weight--that is, for
every three pounds of fresh fruit you get one pound of finished
product.

Smaller fruits, such as red and black raspberries, blackberries,
huckleberries, dewberries, strawberries and blueberries, are simply
washed and then put to dry. Berries must not be dried too hard; if
too much moisture is removed they will not resume their original form
when soaked in water. But the material must be dried sufficiently or
it will mold. Haven't you often tasted extremely seedy dried berries?
They were dried until they rattled. Stop the drying as soon as the
berries fail to stain the hand when pressed.

To obtain the most satisfactory results soft fruits should be only one
layer deep on the drying trays.

Fruits contain about 80 to 95 per cent water and when dried
sufficiently still retain from 15 to 20 per cent of water, so it is a
good plan to weigh before and after drying. The product