Sailor commented in one of his posts a while back about the preservatives in dried fruit slowing mold growth. I found it interesting. Lately he has inspired me to try y hand at some blueberry and ginger Stilton. I made a 2 gallon batch and split it between 2 cheeses. In one I added dried blueberries, in the other crystallized ginger. Both store bought. I diced the ginger into about 3mm cubes and then washed it in running water to remove the copious amounts of sugar on it. I then dried it overnight in the oven with the light on.
In the picture you can clearly see a much more healthy bloom on the ginger. These are the same batch of curds and since they have been right beside each other the whole process the only difference is the fruit. I speculate the washing of the ginger reduced the amount of preservative in it. Kind of interesting. It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the slow one to catch up.
