Apple Lifesavers

Eating locally in Toronto means a helluva lot of root cellar fruits and vegetables in the winter. I order at least one Good Food Box every week, and each week since late last year, I receive a bag of apples in my box. Now don't get me wrong... I love me my Good Food Box, and I have nothing against apples. But an apple a day, sometimes even 2 apples a day, make me go crazy. Especially those soft, crumbly apples. Gross.

I've been trying to think of ways to eat apples in everything. Apples in salad, apples in soup, apples in breakfast porridge. But still, the apples kept-a-comin', and I just couldn't eat them as fast as I was getting them. But then...

I took a trip to the Plan B farm in Hamilton, and it seemed they had the same "problem". But they thought of one idea that I hadn't: dried apple rings.

I cut up a dozen apples into crosswise, even slices, and removed the cores and bruised parts. The slices were laid out on baking sheets, and were placed in the oven on 150-200F for several hours. The drying process lasted about 3 days, since I didn't want to have the oven on when I wasn't at home, but it could easily be done in one continuous drying session. The slices were checked every now and again to get the right dryness.

After I had my apple rings, eating 2 or 3 apples a day was a walk in the park. Hey apples, is that all you got?