Explore Sussex Wholefoods Dried Fruit!
Fruit is one of the most bountiful and enjoyable gifts from nature, but is dried fruit good for you? Well, great news – it’s superb for human health! Regular consumption of dried fruit supplies our bodies with essential vitamins, fibre, antioxidants and minerals. These can lead to significant lowering of the risk of all kinds of chronic conditions, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Best of all, dried fruit is fantastically versatile and exciting as a cooking ingredient and as an addition to all sorts of dishes, both sweet and savoury. Drying fruit massively increases its shelf life, sometimes from mere days to many years, as it removes the vast majority of its moisture and therefore its capacity to spoil. Dried fruit snacks are pretty much the best way to snack – they’re healthy, light, portable and convenient, and by removing the moisture from the fruit, the flavour is intensified and the texture changes, making it truly delicious! So what are dried fruits? Allow us to take you through it, and show off some of the highlights from our range….
The freeze-drying (or ‘lyophilisation’) process involves the fruit being frozen before air pressure is reduced and ice is removed by sublimation (ie. it turns straight from a solid to a gas and is extracted). This sounds like laboratory trickery, but the end result is actually a completely pure product, and no chemicals (or anything else) are added to the fruit. Best of all, no changes occur to the appearance or characteristics of the fruit, and this includes its nutritional value, meaning all its goodness and health-giving properties are retained. Most of the time, the finished product ends up delightfully crispy too, making you feel like you’re eating crisps! Why not try a packet of our lovely Freeze-Dried Mixed Fruit to see what we mean?
Fruit has been left to dry in the sun by humans for many thousands of years as a method of preserving it and at the same time intensifying the flavour. Per ounce, dried fruit has far more fibre, natural sugars and vitamins than fresh fruit. If you’re looking for a wonderfully chewy, sweet, healthy snack, there are few finer things than chomping on a few of our wonderful Organic Mango Slices or a couple of Organic Whole Baby Bananas.
Here’s where all the chefs among you will start to get really excited! Fruit powders are fantastically versatile – not only can you add them to smoothies, sprinkle them on porridge & granola or dip your banana into them for a sweet, tangy treat – you can also incorporate them into breads, biscuits and bakes, put them in puddings, use them to decorate, flavour and colour cheesecakes, add to yoghurts and ice creams, make preserves and chutneys…. There are literally thousands of choices, making fruit powders a genuinely essential store cupboard ingredient for the healthy home chef! Why not try sprinkling some Freeze-Dried Blackberry Powder over some stewed fruit to take the taste factor up a level? Or how about adding a few tablespoons of Freeze-Dried Banana Powder next time you make flapjacks, for a very moreish twist?
Even in the healthy world of fruit, berries – as well as being super-tasty – are close to the top in terms of nutrition and the benefits they can impart to human health. These little squidgy wonder-fruits are absolutely full of antioxidants such as anthocyanins, with Blueberries, Raspberries and Blackberries the top of the league. Berries also contain loads of fibre and vitamins, and there’s growing evidence they’re superb for heart and arterial health. Berries such as Sloe, Juniper and Aronia have also been used for centuries to flavour drinks, stews, preserves and puddings.
Dates are a brilliant fibre-filled snack and are commonly used to replace refined sugar in recipes where a more natural, healthy sweetness is preferred. We’re very excited about our amazing, 100% pure Organic Date Powder, which is superb to add to all kinds of recipes but also wonderful for sprinkling on the kids’ cornflakes in the morning. Or why not grab some gorgeous, soft Medjool Dates and whizz them up with equal quantities of Cashews before forming them into balls and rolling them in Desiccated Coconut? It’s a quick three-ingredient super-snack which tickles the taste buds and ticks all the right boxes!
Okay, we admit boiling fruit in sugar isn’t the best way to increase its health benefits! But we also believe an essential part of a healthy eating lifestyle is allowing ourselves the occasional treat, and the yummy intensity of some lovely, sticky, chewy glacé fruit goes a very long way in a healthy muffin recipe or as an ingredient in homemade energy balls. It’s an ingredient that really comes into its own at Christmas time – after all, what would Christmas cake be without Mixed Glacé Fruit? And who’d want another slice of Panettone without the delectable Candied Lemon & Orange Peel?
Grapetastic! Raisins, Currants & Sultanas
Grapes are a great repository of plant polyphenols, beneficial plant compounds which work in conjunction with our gut bacteria to increase our health and happiness. Sultanas are dried seedless white grapes, while Raisins are dried white seeded grapes. Currants are dried red grapes, and while different recipes call for different types of dried grape, all three of these can pretty much be used interchangeably. These plump, pretty Golden Raisins will certainly brighten up your bakes, while the unique fruitiness of these Organic Green Khorog Raisins will provide lovely bursts of sweetness in curries and are brilliant in biscuits. Our Black Jumbo Raisins give you more bang for your buck, and we even offer these delightfully crispy Freeze-Dried Red Grapes, a lip-smacking, nutritious and unusual sweet treat!
Two of our dried fruits win the popularity contest – Strawberries and Raspberries. Both these red berries offer excellent nutritional profiles and have also been used in a wealth of great British recipes for many centuries. Whether you fancy rustling up some refreshing summertime fruity ice lollies or you’re really in the mood for a slice of delicious dairy-free cheesecake, these are two ingredients no kitchen cupboard should be without! We’re very proud to now be able to offer organic versions too – our Organic Freeze-Dried Raspberries and Organic Freeze-Dried Sliced Strawberries are among our very most popular products, and their incredible taste has to be experienced to be believed!
