Volunteer fairies are back! And I am so happy to have their support. At this time of the year the strawberry harvest is bountiful. We have been drying strawberries on a regular basis. They keep well in glass jars, their flavour a concentrated summer explosion. We are using our dehydrator to dry them. It takes approximately 10-15 hours at 60C to achieve our goal. We can fit 10-12 kilos of strawberries in each drying session. Dehydrating fruit is a great way to preserve it without the need to add sugar and has become one of my favourite ways of storing fruit.

I also really love drying rose petals. These are dried on cane baskets and placed on top of oven racks to ensure air flow above and below. They are left out to dry in our kitchen and are ready when the petals feel crispy. They are then packed into jars.