Coop light problems!

[TAJ]

Has anyone got one of these? They look like a good way of preserving fruit & veg. I see Lakeland are now selling one, but I wondered if anyone had ever used one or has recipe ideas for them.

 

 

Tracy

[Snowy]

Dilly who used to post on here a lot had one. She had a big allotment and used this to preserve all kinds of things. Sadly her blog disappeared into the ether so I can't even point you in her direction. But I do know she swore by it.

 

Edit: I tell a lie - looks like she managed to save it. ***Link Here***

Worth a rummage in her archives!

[Lesley]

I use mine to dry tiny tomatoes and the hops - sometimes I make apple rings but I'm too lazy to be faffed most of the time I'm glad I've got mine but I wouldn't pay silly money for a fancier one as I wouldn't use it enough.

[Chucky Mama]

I have one, there is a bit of a thread HERE

[C&T]

I got one last autumn, and tried all sorts of things - banana, mango, apple, tomatoes etc.

 

Think they turned out very well - unfortunately a side effect of the first 12 weeks of pregnancy was I couldn't cope with the stronger smell of dried fruits, so didn't try a lot of it!! But it appeared to dry really well, once I got the hang of how thick to cut things, and others said they liked it and said it had a more intense flavour than shop brought dried fruit.

 

Will have to try again soon and see if I can cope with the smell now, as I do normally like dried fruits, and much better for me than chocolate!

 

I would say though that to make the most of it you have to either grow a lot of stuff yourself that you can dry, or have access to cheaper/free foods to dry otherwise it is not very cost effective. You have to cut the fruit quite thickly or you end up with very thin bits of dried fruit, so you don't get many apple rings from a single apple.

 

Good fun though, and I don't regret the purchase at all!

[TAJ]

I would say though that to make the most of it you have to either grow a lot of stuff yourself that you can dry, or have access to cheaper/free foods to dry otherwise it is not very cost effective. You have to cut the fruit quite thickly or you end up with very thin bits of dried fruit, so you don't get many apple rings from a single apple.

 

Good fun though, and I don't regret the purchase at all!

 

Thanks - we have a large allotment and always have surplus stuff we are freezing, jaming, etc and we did do a lot of oven dried tomatoes last year - I think this would be more controlable than using the oven lowly.

 

Tracy