At the beginning of the project, we visited our cousin Tommy Tomich for a lesson in drying fruit. Born on his family farm about 85 years ago, Tom served in World War II and has farmed ever since.
He has a farm much like ours, with seasonal fruits that he sells direct to the public. But he does not have refrigeration to store extra fruit, so he dries his surplus fruit for fall and winter sales. We spent a couple of hours talking about old times and watching while his workers were cutting and readying the fruit for drying. I was surprised how simple it is and went away wondering why we haven't been drying all along.
Right around that time, we saw an ad in the back of an ag magazine for used drying trays. We drove to the Central Valley to pick them up from a retiring farmer. They were very old and needed repair; some we couldn’t salvage. But the price was right!
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