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[Squeaks squeaks]
Sure, you can have a raisin, Squeaks!
You know, it’s so weird that these used to be grapes!
It’s weird, right?
They’re raisins, not grapes!
But even though they look pretty different, raisins actually start out as grapes.
They become raisins when they’re dried out.
Grapes are big and juicy because they have lots of water in them.
But when you dry them out, they lose their water and shrink up into raisins.
I like raisins because they’re a sweet snack, and they’re good for you, too:
they have lots of fiber, potassium, and iron, and all of those things keep you healthy and strong!
And the way they’re made is pretty cool!
There are two main types of raisins.
These purple ones I’m eating here are also known as natural raisins
because they’re dried naturally in the sun, meaning without anything else we add to help it along.
People who make raisins put grapes on big sheets of paper out in the sun.
They stay there for about three weeks.
And after those three weeks, they’re raisins!
The other type are golden raisins.
Some people think that purple raisins and golden raisins are different colors
because they’re made from different color grapes, but that’s actually not the case!
They’re both made from the same type of grape: green grapes without any seeds.
The different colors come from the way we dry them.
When you dry the green grapes naturally in the sun, they turn purple.
But golden raisins are dried in a different way, using something called a dehydrator.
A dehydrator is something that removes the hydration from food, which is another way of saying that it takes out the water.
Grapes take just a little under a day in the dehydrator to turn into golden raisins,
which is much shorter than the three weeks they take to dry in the sun.
But, before the grapes go into the dehydrator to become golden raisins, there’s actually one other step.
The grapes are treated with something called sulfur dioxide, and it helps keep the raisins that golden color.
Sulfur dioxide is a gas, just like air, but it’s not the same as air.
It’s good for keeping things from changing too much or going bad over time,
and we use it to make a lot of other dried fruit, too, like dried apricots and dried pineapple.
Golden raisins tend to be a bit juicier than natural raisins, and sulfur dioxide,
plus that special drying process, both help with that.
There’s another important thing to know about the difference between purple and golden grapes:
some people can be allergic to the golden kind!
That’s because of that sulfur dioxide used to dry golden grapes, which some people are allergic to.
An allergy is when you get sick or your body gets a rash or an itchy throat from a food or something else, like certain animals or trees.
So if someone is allergic to sulfur dioxide, that means they can’t eat golden grapes even though they might be able to eat the purple ones.
You know, grapes aren’t the only fruits that look so different and even have a different name when you dry them!
Have you ever had a prune?
You could also call prunes dried plums!
Just like how grapes are made into raisins when you dry them, plums are transformed into prunes.
And like golden raisins, prunes are made by putting plums into a dehydrator.
That gives me an idea!
Do you like muffins, Squeaks?
[Squeaks squeaks]
We can make natural raisin muffins, golden raisin muffins, and even prune muffins!
Doesn’t that sound amazing?
We could even add some pumpkin spice, like cinnamon and ginger.
They’ll be extra-delicious and extra-nutritious.
Let’s do it!
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Thanks, and we’ll see you next time, here at the Fort!
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