Preserving fruit is a great way to capture the in-season taste year-round. Here's how freeze-dried and dehydrated fruit are different, and when they work best.

Freeze-dried fruit is also uniquely easy to take on-the-go, Gentile says. It can be divided into packages that “can go in kids’ lunch boxes or the car very easily,” she says.

Since freeze-dried fruit is powdered, you don’t have to worry about it watering down your recipe, nor do you have to account for added sugar (the way you would with fruit jam).

I remember when I first tasted freeze-dried fruit. It was sometime in the mid-2000s, I had just graduated from college, moved into my first apartment and was doing all kinds of grown-up things.

Freeze-dried fresh fruit makes a splendid snack when you're out on the hiking trails or ski slopes, and you need a snack that can tolerate getting smooshed in a pocket. These are the best of the ...