All That Fruit!

[David006]

We have a rubber farm but we have planted many fruit trees...Banana , Papaya( they just grew!) etc around the house.

After three years we now have lots of fruit from these and maybe in a few years we will also have Mango, Mangosteen etc add nauseam. Also the wife's twin sister and MIL have farms ( they sell a lot of their fruit)and thus we have a supply of fruit coming out of our ears in season.

So... we eat a lot but end up composting a lot too..we give it away, feed the bees/butterflies and even our shepherd.The wifey fries bananas...excellent!

Question: ideas for preserving, recipes etc.

What about freezing, canning,jams jellies, compotes, breads,cakes, wine? etc... anyone doing it?? Is it worth it? .

..Wifey says "we have many, why/what you want to do?"..yes maybe I am just making work...but all seems such a waste...must be the dearth of exotic fruit post war cockney kid in me..lol

cheers

david

[IsaanAussie]

David,

Preserves, jams and jellies require equipment, a clean environment and some skills. You can get all the information you need from the internet. Westerner style equipment is not easy to find upcountry so you may have to improvise.

As a thought have you thought about making dried fruit products? For instance papaya rollups or leather. Mixed up with sugar and spread thinly onto a plastic sheet and put out in the sun to dry. Kids like them and they keep well. Banana chips, chocolate covered or honey glazed, bananas in batter with syrup.

If you are going to produce sun dried products, do a bit of research into a solar drier. I will eventually get around to building one. Basically a box 8x4 ft with a few sheets or corrugated iron painted black as the base and a sheet of glass as the top surface. These surfaces separated by an 8" air gap. Set that up facing north south as a ramp and feed the heated air into the bottom of a box with a rack of product. A small fan to force more air through if needed.

We have a shop village shop and serve stuff we can make ourselves to the local kids. Pancakes and waffles are good sellers that would go well served with fresh fruits or conserves. Fruit salads, banana cakes etc.... endless list, much of it can be made in batches and frozen.

The question really is, it is all do-able, but what are you going to do with the end product? In our case this market segment comprises about 40 children that all can manage 5 or 10 baht for a treat each day. A princely 200 or 300 baht per day with about 50% as profit. Is it worth it? Yes, there is a small profit in it but a tremendous amount of satisfaction as well.

Isaan Aussie

[ATO1994]

Hi David.

IQF processing machinery cost a bundle.

I am interested to know more about the varieties of your Banana, Papaya, & Mango.

Mangosteen of course ...

Is your:

Banana - Kluai Hom or Kluai Khai?

Payaya - Khaek Dam or Khaek Nuan?

Mango - NamDok Mai, Rad or Chok Anan?

IF your produce is Organic. I see great potential!

Please PM at your earliest convenient.

Edited September 24, 2010 by ATO1994

[tim armstrong]

Hi David,

What about frozen fruit pulp, fruit juice, fruit icecream. Dried bananas seem to sell well. Its all labour intensive, but something you can freeze and use when you need or the market is right may work.

[Mosha]

I have a mother in law. That's where our fruit disappears to

[David006]

Thanks guys..good ideas..all!

Maybe make a dryer..methinks that's a good one!

Frozen fruit pulp ...like that too..great on roast pork I would think ..more interesting than apple sauce..LOl

Could use it on ice cream if the bloody box wasn't always empty??

thanks again...

just a note that right now I/we are too busy with the rubber to consider commercial use..good ideas though ....maybe later...

Edited October 5, 2010 by David006