Food – A Quiet Walk

I know it’s July 4^th 2026 but I was just asked for my Brandied Dried Fruit recipe and couldn’t resist posting something now. I usually make this in September to prepare for holiday baking, but I must admit to using the leftovers long after they are over. You see I freeze the leftovers and then use it to make my husband’s favorite muffins and oatmeal cookies.

I have been making this for 70 years or so, (yes, I’m old) and it is a tradition for making my fruit bread and Christmas Stollen.

Growing up on a farm we used the fruits from our orchard and those planted along the hedgerows. Mom would dry them just for this, our house smelled so good as the fruit dried, first strawberries, then cherries (sour and sweet), peaches, plums, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, apples and pears. In just about that order. All summer the house smelled so sweet. We kids were kept busy picking, sorting, and washing fruit. (We ate as much as we picked, too.) Mom would add raisins and currents and started adding dried oranges and lemons when I was a teenager. She never added the pineapple, as that was too expensive and apricots didn’t grow in Ohio.

Mom had a huge jar with a wide mouth that she saved just for this and started the mixture with the first of the dried strawberries putting a layer in the bottom and adding brandy. My dad liked brandy and often bought Christian Brothers Brandy so that is what she used. She would add the next layer of dried fruit when it was ready, adding a bit of brandy each time and mixing the fruit up, she just kept doing that all summer. By September she would finger tighten the jar lid and add a bit more brandy every week until she started baking in late October and November.

She made fruit breads and rolls then froze them until Christmas and New Year’s. They were so good. Whatever was left over she used for baking until it was all gone and then started over in June. Everyone knew when she opened that jar, the sweet smell of brandy and fruit filled the house. It is one of my favorite childhood memories.

I still make brandied fruit the way she did, but now I purchase dried fruit. I don’t usually start until September but maybe this year I will begin now and enjoy the scents of home this Christmas.

Here is my version of Mom’s recipe. I hope it inspires you to try it and make memories too.

Mom and Ruth’s Brandied Dried Fruit

I start in September for the holidays, but you can do this anytime.

I use only nuts and dried fruit, Do not Use Candied Fruit

Favorite mixture of cherries, cranberries, peaches, apricots, apples, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, lemon peel and orange peel (I get these at Trader Joes), dates, and pears, figs, plums* (Not prunes), currents, and raisins.

I use very coarsely chopped pecans, walnuts, and hazelnuts. Chop just so they aren’t whole.

Chop large pieces of fruit into bite sized ones.

Use any combination of fruit you want.

Put them in a large bowl or big glass jar. Pour add about a cup of good brandy (I often use Grand Marnier) toss together well and every week add a bit more.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap or loosely top with jar lid.

Let it sit on the kitchen counter for as long as you like but let it sit at least a month. Scoop out what you need and recover.

After the holidays I will freeze the fruit in 1 cup bags and use it for baking until I start a new batch in September. It will continue to ripen in freezer.

Makes the best oatmeal cookies ever.

*You can buy “Traina Home Grown Jumbo California Sun Dried Angelino Plum Halves ” on Amazon if you don’t want to dry your own, which I have done.

What does it mean to eat locally grown foods? Well it doesn’t mean you eat only food grown in your area. Rather it means you understand the importance of food or, as my friend David Bell says (Eating Locally, Artistically, justbetweentheridges.wordpress.com), the sacredness of food. Eating food from a neighbor or a local farmer has less impact on the environment than food grown at great distance from us. There are few transportation costs, less gas and oil means a smaller carbon footprint. Most local farmers use fewer pesticides or none at all that leads to less contamination of the environment and fewer chemicals to which we are exposed. The food is fresher because we are buying directly from the farmer we they can pick the fruit and produce at its peak instead of early because they don’t have to transport it as far. That leads to better nutrition for us and our families. The relationships built with farmers means you know where your food comes from and how it is produced. Those are some of the benefits but what about the sacredness of food?

Well, food is sacred. It is a gift from the Holy Presence to feed our bodies and when we separate ourselves from where it originates we lose a connection with the Holy that is basic to life itself. Throughout scripture food plays an important role in the relationship with God, and with the people of the bible. In Genesis God provided food for Adam and Eve, when they were banned from the Garden God still provided for them. The Israelites are fed by God with food from heaven; Elijah is cared for by angels; and at the end of his 40 days of temptation, the angels provided for Jesus. Ultimately we celebrate the sacredness of food every Sunday when we bless bread and cup and offer the feast of Jesus at the communion table. Food is important not just to our physical well being but to our spiritual well being as well. The work a farmer does is not only necessary to our existence it is a holy occupation, a sacred act, a connection between God, earth and us.

This week spiritual practice is to offer thanks at each meal for the food you eat. Here is the table prayer I use, you may use it or one of your own:

Holy Giver of Life, I thank you for this food before me, thank you for the earth in which it was grown, thank you for sun and rain that nurtured, thank you for the farmer who harvested it, and thank for the hands that prepared it. May this food feed our bodies as you feed our souls. Amen.

May your week be filled with wonderful food and abundant grace.