Plenty of berries ripen in your garden year after year in late summer and autumn and you don't really know what to do with the large number? It is best to dry these healthy and tasty delicacies in order to preserve them and use them in muesli and other dishes as you wish. We'll show you how to properly dry berries!

Dried berries are tasty and healthy

Which berries are suitable for drying?

Any variety that you can eat raw and that grows in the garden or wild will do. Examples include raspberries, currants, mulberries and blackberries.

Important: Before you actually start drying, you must wash the berries carefully and remove bugs and damaged areas.

Drying berries - these methods exist

You can dry your berries in three ways:

  • in the dehydrator
  • in the oven
  • in the air

Dry berries in the dehydrator

Ideally, distribute the berries separately according to species on the individual floors. The advantage of this is that you can take smaller and therefore faster-drying fruits out of the machine as soon as they are ready.

tips

Drying in a dehydrator is preferable. In such a device, the berries are dried particularly gently and effectively - thanks to the even heat and the sophisticated air flow.

Dry berries in the oven

If you don't have a dehydrator, you can also dry your berries in the oven:

  1. Spread the berries out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  2. Leave the fruit to dry at temperatures of 40 to 50 degrees Celsius.
  3. Stick a wooden spoon in the oven door so that it is slightly ajar and the moisture can escape.

Tips:

  • Depending on the size of the berries, drying can take anywhere from a few hours to several days.
  • The higher the temperature, the faster the berries will dry.
  • The lower the temperature, the fewer vitamins are lost.
  • We advise you to give preference to vitamins and not to time.

Air dry berries

There is also the option of drying berries entirely without electricity: in the open air. However, there are two elementary requirements for this: It must be sufficiently warm and there must be enough air exchange.

The dry climate of an attic is ideal. But berries also dry well next to an activated heater or a burning fireplace.

tips

Note that it can sometimes take several weeks for berries to dry completely. To prevent mold growth over this long period, you should turn the fruit daily.

The garden journal freshness ABC

How can fruit and vegetables be stored correctly so that they stay fresh for as long as possible?

The garden journal freshness ABC as a poster:

  • as a free PDF file to print out yourself

Category:

Vegetable garden