My mom used to make the best banana chips and dried apricot halves! Now around Christmas time I dehydrate kiwis, apples, mangos, and sometimes candied salmon.
Homemade food is almost always better. It's healthier and the ingredients are clearly more fresh. Plus it's satisfying to grow and bottle your own food.
I just thought of a kitchen tool example of how things built in the older days were better. My mom has a garlic press made out of a really sturdy metal. That thing is still going strong when I go visit her and she was using that tool when I was little. I have been through a few garlic presses...
I like a few pieces of candy corn around Halloween. I like to bite off the sections on the candy corn - first the yellow tip, then the orange middle, at last the bottom yellow - yum!