Grown-up Fun Fruit

Last night as my sister tasted dried cantaloupe for the first time she commented: “It’s surprisingly sweet and melts in your mouth, like a grown-up Fun Fruit.”

I started drying cantaloupe a few years ago.  At first, I was worried that cantaloupe would merely disappear when dehydrated, yet it turned out to be one of my preferred dried fruits.  Through my efforts to support local farms and eat local produce all year, I have experimented drying many fruits and vegetables, whatever is in abundance at any local farm. 

Last summer while at Cascade Farm’s Saturday morning market (www.cascadefarmschool.org) I noticed a basket overflowing with extremely reasonably priced cantaloupe.  The farmer, Margaret, explained that they had so many ripe melon, they were worried they would spoil before they sold them all.  I had the opportunity to help a farmer sell her produce and preserve a favorite fruit to consume in winter—avoiding having to buy cantaloupe that has traveled half way around the world.  That’s a true bargain. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that in 1960 only 6 percent of cantaloupes eaten were imported, but today the number has grown to 34 percent.  It would nice (and so much more sustainable) to reverse this trend.