Making Raisins

Earlier this summer I enjoyed the most amazing homemade raisins I think I’ve ever tasted! We were at a friend’s house, and she served them as part of an appetizer. Fast forward to present day with our Mars table grapes coming in on the farm. We only have four vines, but they are proving to be prolific, so I’ve decided to try my hand at making raisins.

It is an experiment in process so the results will occur after this blog posts. I asked my friend how she approached making them and used that as my starting point. I destemmed four trays worth of grapes, washed and placed them in our dehydrator for eight hours at 125 degrees. According to my friend the trick is to keep them juicy but not too much and then freeze them. They were still a bit too moist after eight hours, so I added another four hours at the same temperature. I then had Bella place them on a cookie sheet and put them in the freezer. The purpose of the cookie sheet is to have them freeze as individual raisins verses a clump, the latter being harder to eat.

My next experiment is to do the same thing only dehydrate them for 24 hours and then freeze; then I will compare the two and see which version is better. If neither are too my desired outcome I will next play with the temperature using the two times as my constant. My goal with this experiment is to come up with a standard method of dehydration for the grapes that I can document and use again in the future.

Of course, fresh grapes are always delightful on a charcuterie board but so are raisins and while the grapes will serve us well in the summer, the raisins will allow us to enjoy our home grown grapes all year long!