The culprit was this very satisfied squirrel:

So here’s my new method. I store the fruit in a cooler on the back porch. If I had two coolers, I could store more fruit. I have kept those egg crate type sheets that go in between layers of apples. I use them as I fill the cooler layer by layer with the apples from the box. This can be done with pears, oranges, etc.

How do you store your fruit? Perhaps you are blessed with a cellar or a dark, cool food pantry. If so, I am very happy for you, for that is a blessing!

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(choose organic ingredients)

• about 4 apples, sweet variety such as Fuji
• handful of raw almonds
• handful of raisins
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• pinch nutmeg
• 1 cup pure water

Wash, quarter and core the apples. Place in the Vita-Mix wet container, along with all other ingredients. Put on lid with tamper.

While using tamper, turn on to variable speed #1, increase to #10, then flip to HIGH. Run only as much as needed to chop all ingredients into a thick sauce. Do not puree.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

My mom makes this relish every year. She has made it for so many people, who all love it.

It is really easy. You will need either a manual or electric grinder, or a food processor. If you only have a blender, you can use that too, but what you’ll want to watch is that you don’t liquefy the fruits. If you’re using a blender, chop small batches of fruit and use brief pulses of chopping to prevent liquefying the fruit.

Update 11/16/09: We like to stir this relish into our morning kefir! It is delicious!

• 1 to 2 pounds raw cranberries
• 4 apples
• 4 oranges
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup sweetener of your choice – honey, Rapadura, Sucanat, maple syrup, evaporated cane juice, etc.

Wash cranberries. Remove any bad cranberries.

Wash and core the apples, leaving the peel on, and cut into wedges.

Peel the oranges and cut into wedges.

Chop all ingredients in batches in the food processor or food grinder. Mix well. Add sweetener, to taste. Store in the refrigerator overnight to let the flavors mingle. Enjoy!

This plum sauce is great atop Chocolate Ice Cream, on our favorite breakfast porridge, Genius Breakfast Cereal, or stirred into a bowl of kefir. It is not too sweet and it is really tasty!

makes about 3-1/2 cups

• 3 cups plums, washed, halved and pitted (or use frozen)
• handful of raisins
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup raw local honey, or to taste

Place fresh or frozen plums, raisins and honey in food processor. Process until smooth. If using frozen plums, this will be cold and ready to go immediately. If fresh, chill until cold.

© Copyright 2007-2009 by Wardeh Harmon

Here are Barlett pears from a local organic farm. I’ve been able to buy them for 50 cents per pound, which could only be beat if I had my own trees. In case you can get them cheaper, please don’t tell me.

To dry the pears, I am following the directions in my book, Dry It! You’ll Like It! The only part of the pear that I remove is the stem. Then I cut the pear into 1/4 inch slices — fruit, core, seeds and all. They take between 1 and 2 days to fully dry at 95 degrees.

Then these are plums from that same local organic farm. I paid 70 cents per pound. They call this variety Prunes. I’ve always thought that prunes are the dried form of plums, but apparently Prunes can apply to a variety, too.

Since my book said that smaller pieces dry better and are more nutritious in the end, I am drying the Prunes as wedges instead of wholes or halves. First I cut each Prune in half, pop the seed out, and then cut each half into 3 or 4 wedges each. This is my first batch; I filled 2 of the trays with the Prunes. I’m sure they will be good, because the fresh Prunes are deliciously sweet.

I also purchased Santa Rosa plums for freezing. So far, I’ve put 2 gallons of that variety in the freezer. I cut them in half, popped out the pit and put them in freezer bags. My friend told me they freeze beautifully. Those are dedicated for smoothies throughout the winter.

It has been fun this year to test different local varieties. When we’re ready to plant our own trees, we will definitely plant Santa Rosa plums. They are very sweet with a deep red color and a great texture (not too mushy).

We’re eating gobs of the fresh pears, because this is the best time to eat them — during their season.

The rest, I am preserving. On Friday, I made 4 quarts of unsweetened pear sauce using Bartlett pears. I would have preferred to dehydrate the very ripe pears that made this sauce, but we were headed out of town and wouldn’t be around to facilitate a 2-day dehydration.

Now that we are back home and more pears have ripened, I began dehydrating about 20 Bartlett pears. My dehydrator only has 3 trays, so I’m limited to that. I have a book — Dry It, You’ll Like It! by Gen MacManiman (1974) — with plans for building one’s own. That’s a dream of mine, to have Jeff build a large dehydrator for our family.

I’m going to take advantage of the pear season this year by ordering more of them from that local, organic farm. I don’t want to can many, as the nutrition is much less that way, but would like to dehydrate lots for snacking and rehydrating over the winter. I am dehydrating at 95 to 100 degrees, so as to protect the viability of the pears.

Big bowls of fruit on my counter (taken last summer)

I began this summer that way. Putting big bowls of produce out. Then one day I noticed a couple fruit flies hanging around. Within minutes, there were thousands of fruit flies around. Okay, slight exaggeration. It was more like within a few days there were a hundred of them. I was at a loss as to what to do.

A couple weeks went by and those darned things kept multiplying! I tried one of those sticky fly things. Nope. They knew that fruit was better. Then I realized that I could keep our precious produce out where I liked it by preventing the fruit flies from getting to it. I covered each bowl with a towel. The towels had to be large enough to prevent any openings through which the flies would have access to the fruit. It worked! Too bad the bowls are not as pretty anymore.

The towels are covering a platter full of bananas, a bowl of organic and local heirloom tomatoes, two bowls of natural pears from our doctor, and another bowl of organic pears from Azure Standard.

After a couple more weeks, all the pesky fruit flies died. Of starvation. Yes. I’m sorry if I’m shocking you. I’m not normally a fan of long, drawn-out deaths. But those fruit flies deserved it. They were in My Kitchen and hanging around My Food.

A friend told me what her mom does to get rid of fruit flies. You see, they really like vinegar. I’m not sure if they like all vinegars, but I have noticed for sure that they love apple cider and balsamic vinegar. She puts a bit of vinegar in a little plastic bag, probably sandwich bag size, and lays it on the counter. She props the bag open so the flies can get to the vinegar, but the bag has to be closed enough so the flies can’t get out. They drown in the vinegar. She tosses the bag and starts a new one when it gets too gross.

So there you have it. If you’re suffering from fruit flies, here are two natural methods for getting rid of them.