Dates To Remember

Cutting back on sweets and chocolates after the festive season isn’t easy, especially for a four-year-old, but Sam Woulidge’s love of dried fruit (and nostalgia) saves Seb from lunchbox gloom

As a child, I knew the festive season was well and truly over when the only sweet things to be found in our house were the unwanted leftovers in the dried fruit gift boxes. Surprisingly enough in our chocolate-obsessed house, these were the ones sprinkled with chocolate vermicelli. The delicious red and green Fruit Dainties were, of course, long gone come January, as were the tiny oblong rolls of wonderfully tangy yellow peach and apricot sugar dusted mebos, the oldest known Cape confectionery. But when the sweet cravings struck and nothing else was on offer, the chocolate vermicelli morsels would have to do.

Ever since then, dried fruit has, for me, been an acceptable substitute for sweets and chocolates, and while it may only be marginally healthier than commercial sweets, eating it feels a lot more virtuous than the alternative.