The Food Farm guide to soft, chewy dried fruit

Our time in the Barossa Valley in South Australia gave us the confidence to try the following recipe. There, on sunny days, you'll see hillsides covered in racks of drying apricots.

Aotearoa has more humidity and a lot more rainfall, so a dehydrator is a safer alternative to a sunny hillside or verandah, but the basic principle and recipe are the same.

But the key to the soft dried fruit we produce is potassium metabisulphite (PMS). It's a sulphur-based preserving agent found in homebrew outlets or bulk food stores.

Its preserving ability means you don't have to dry the fruit to the same degree as you normally would using dehydration, which results in softer, more delicious fruit. Our favourites using this method are grapes (which become raisins) and apricots.

WARNING: PMS is a safe, edible preservative used in many everyday foods. However, don't use it if you have a serious asthma condition.