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bean
Raw Newbie
I was wondering about raisins- I absolutely love them, but I've recently been rethinking some things that I thought were raw, like the organic dried fruit in the health food stores- I guess most of it is dried at whatever temperature the supplier thought was the quickest, but what about raisins? Are raisins sundried, or are they dried at a low enough temp to be considered raw? Aren't they just sundried grapes? I've heard people eating raw and eating certain kinds of raisins that can be bought in any grocery store... does anyone have any info on raisins, and if there are any kinds that are definitely raw?
Comments
It is my understanding that not only are the raisins not raw but they are also treated with sulfur and or other chemicals
The only raw raisins I'm aware, are the ones I dried myself this Sept... It took over a week in the dehydrator but is worth the trouble as they taste so much better than any raisin from the store...
There may be some raw food sites that sell raw raisins but I am unaware of them...
I wouldn't consider most(if any) of the raisins I get in conventional stores raw.
I finally have a dehyrdrator and plan on making some of my own soon, to use in cereals or trail mix.
Ick! What about the organic ones you can buy in small packages at health food stores? There are some that look about the size of prunes, almost- if they're labeled organic, and sold fresh, are they still likely to have been treated with sulphur? (I'm thinking maybe the bigger raisins wouldn't have been produced the same as the smaller, mass-produced ones, since they're harder to find- kind of like calimyrna (sp?) figs or delget noor dates
dried fruits... BAD.
EAT THEM FRESH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At my health food store I go to, any dried, unsulphured fruit is labeled as such. I don't know what raisins would look like, but pineapple, banana, papaya, mango, are all a darker, less vibrant color when they're NOT sulphured. Anything really bright-coloured probably has been treated to preserve the colour.
Organic dried fruits are not treated with sulfur and the vast majority of it are sun dried the rest in large dehydrators with temps no higher then 50c, if you wanna be sure contact the maker, you can know if it has sulfur or not by the color, raisins that are sulfur treated are yellow, because sulfur helps them to keep their color, organic ones are black, same goes for apricots and some other dried fruits.
Sun-maid raisins are not organic, but don't contain sulfur. They are dried in California sun!!!!
I don't think a small handful a day will hurt, but I could be wrong.
I use them on my salad, infact I don't use any salad dressing at all. The small handful of raisins IS my dressing!!!
;-)
it takes FOREVER to dry your own raisins. ok that's an exaggeration but still. mine were in the dehydrator for 3 days on 105F ( i unplugged it for a few hours each day to save on electricity), and i got so mad that they weren't drying! The juice came out of the tops a little, but that was it. I just buy raisins anyways because I love them.
i heard in another thread that it helps to poke holes in them with a toothpick.
sounds like alot of work !!!
Hunza raisins (seeded, and therefore less glycemic and more densely mineralized) are truly raw. They are available on many websites, including:
rawvegansource.com
naturalzing.com
Natural Zing has Monukka raisins, too, with seeds!
For dehydrating, I prefer to use the green grapes. The green grapes seem to dehydrate quicker.
This may be because the grapes I have been picking up are a little smaller than some of the other varieties.
Because grapes dehydrated at lower temperatures do not end up like the Sunmaid raisins, it seems better to stop dehydrating before they are completely dry. Otherwise, when they are completely dry they turn crispy.
Dehydrated green grapes turn brown. This color change can be used as an indicator of when they are getting drier. When they are dark brown, this seems to be a good time to stop. This method probably result in a shorter shelf life. Drying the green grapes to a dark brown takes about four to five days which is much shorter than some of the other types of grapes. Processing the grapes by stabbing them before starting will probably shorten the time but as mentioned this is a bit of a bother.
I think raisins are a great "transition" food. meaning, they might not be 100% raw techinically but they don't cause cooked food cravings to come back. they also don't give me symptoms like other cooked foods do. so I have them in moderation.
i doubt organic ones are treated with sulfur.
My husband says he's seen the raisins drying in the fields here in CA and why would they sulfur black raisins? Sulfur is used to preserve the color so why use it? I get delicious sun dried raisins at TJ's so I hope they're raw!
I'm actually making raisins right now in my dehydrator. I cut the grapes in half so they are actually drying faster than I thought they would (it's been almost 24 hours now). However, I also just realized that my temperature setting is slightly higher than the enzyme preservation (118).. eep! Oh well, this is a good experiment for me anyways, but cutting the grapes in half really does help a lot... you just won't get the conventional 'whole' looking raisin you see in stores.