Eldertoes
Dried dropfruits, more commonly known as eldertoes, are a common flavor ingredient in many recipes. They have had a much longer history in the islands than their fresh counterparts, and in some places are still better known.
Manufacturing process
Dropfruits can be dried in the sun, but most are subjected to an accelerated process of oven-drying. The fruits are loaded onto mesh trays and packed into an oven. Hot air blows over them and draws the moisture out. Because the fruits are so small, the drying process is relatively quick. After a little more than a day, the fruits are in a state in which they can be safely packed for shipping.
History
Eldertoes are listed as cargo in Tiderider manifests going back as far as 6000 Oce. At that time they must have been exported from the vastland, since no atoll has growing conditions suitable for dropfruits. Yet they survived the loss of contact between oceandwellers and vastlanders, leading to the conclusion that today's dropfruits and eldertoes must be descended from plants that took root on Barkold and Eihlari.
From there, dropfruit seeds made their way to the Cluster Islands with the atoll refugees. Whether they were planted deliberately or by accident, they found a perfect home on the south side of Galtern's mountains and flourished there. Since then they have been cultivated into a crop species with a unique sweetness not found in the varieties growing wild elsewhere. The drying process changes the flavor, making eldertoes unpleasant in dessert dishes. They're more commonly boiled in soup stock, or chopped and mixed into bread.
Item type
Consumable, Food / Drink
Rarity
Eldertoes are very nearly ubiquitous. For those who live on islands that conduit boats can't reach within a day, they're still the only way to experience dropfruit.
As far as I can tell, they have always been called eldertoes. The term is gruesome, but the fact is there is nothing they resemble so much as little wrinkled toes. There is a certain age range in which children find it hilarous to call them "droppings", to which they also bear an unfortunate resemblance.
--Elan
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To be fair, real world raisins kind of look weird and gross.
Don't they? Dried fruits have such a mummified look I sometimes feel like the first person to eat them must have been desperately hungry, and only then realized it might be worth doing on purpose.