Hello Copelander. Yes, I felt somewhat cheated, though I enjoyed the theme. Not sure what my dessert apples are, Devadolly. They are very red and firm and, at the moment, not as sweet as I would like for juice, but that may improve. Unfortunately three of my four apple trees are cookers, so I am busy coring, cooking and freezing. Will try the apple rings. Youngest son has recently bought a 'dehumidifier' or some such, which dries fruit and he is going to bring it with him for me to try next week. I also have some ripe plums here, given by a neighbour, and two plum trees, fruit definitely not ripe yet, to deal with in due course. There are also two pear trees. Not sure how to handle these. One is quite poorly with black, sooty splodges on most of the leaves and not much fruit. The other is much smaller and has small reddish pears, so far very hard. I read that you should remove them before they are ripe to avoid grittiness, but very uncertain as to when to do this. It all seems much harder than doing EV. By the way Novalis my thumbs and other areas are pricking, but it was the crop of stinging nettles that I also have that was the cause!