Cultivating dried fruit, note (7)
I believe the answer is:
raising
'cultivating' is the definition.
(raising is a kind of cultivating)
'dried fruit note' is the wordplay.
'dried fruit' becomes 'raisin' (raisin is a kind of dried fruit).
'note' becomes 'g' (musical note).
'raisin'+'g'='RAISING'
(Other definitions for raising that I've seen before include "Lifting" , "Elevating" , "Growing" , "Promoting (in rank)" , "Bringing up" .)