How to Use Your Car to Make Dried Fruit

Today’s project is something completely different, but it will make sense to all of you who have been sweltering in our summer’s heatwave.  What do you say when you’re stuck in the car? “This feels like an oven.”  Exactly!

This project teaches kids about where food comes from and how most of our processed food could be replicated at home if we just had enough time and skill.  For this project, we certainly have both.

What You’ll Need

  • a car
  • a cutting board
  • a knife
  • 1 kg of fresh fruit: we used apricots

Step 1

Cut your fruit into thinnish pieces.

choped-fruit

Step 2

Lay the fruit out on a cutting board.  It’s OK if the pieces touch, as they are going to shrink in the heat.

fruit

Step 3

 Park your car so it’s facing the sun.

fruit-in-car

Place the cutting board full of fruit on the dashboard.

fruit-on-dashboard

Step 4

After 4 to 5 hours, check to see that the sun is still shining directly on the dashboard.  If not, move the car.

Step 5

You can leave the fruit in the car overnight.  Our tray took 2 days to dry out.  But we even overdid it a bit, and the pieces were very crispy.

dried-fruit

On the second day, or after 8 hours of sunshine, be sure to check the fruit and see if it’s dried to your liking.

Ours was so yummy and so much cheaper than buying dried fruit!  It was a great lesson in solar energy as well.

Please leave a comment below to let us know if you try this recipe!

Click here to find places in Gauteng offering arts and craft classes.

Note: If you enjoyed this article, and would like to stay updated with more, you can:

Author

Picture of Shannon Walbran

Shannon Walbran

Shannon Walbran wrote these DIY Kids columns but now works full time as a Life Coach and spiritual healer.

2 Responses

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Stay updated, subscribe to the free Jozikids newsletter for parents in Gauteng.

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously. Unsubscribe anytime.

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Stay updated, subscribe to the free Jozikids newsletter for parents in Gauteng.

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously. Unsubscribe anytime.
Send this to a friend