fruit leather- the simplest way to preserve fruit

As I've mentioned before, my kids have all worked at a local farm and orchard. If there is one thing farmers hate, it's seeing food go to waste. As a result, we are given a lot of tired fruit that couldn't be sold.

The fruit is far past the canning stage. Occasionally, it's good enough for making fruit sauce or butter, but it usually gets turned into fruit leather. All I have to do is cut off any bad spots (or rescue any good spots!) and pop it in the blender. Stone fruits get peeled, but a dead ripe peach is nearly as east to peel as a banana, so it's almost no effort. I whir it up in the blender and put it on fruit leather sheets. It's usually the last thing I do in the evening before heading to bed. In the morning, it's all done.

Last night I made a batch with some strawberries that were heading downhill, a ripe banana and a bit of lemon juice. I will roll it in wax paper and tuck it in the fridge.

If you're not big on fruit leather, I imagine that you could reconstitute it into "jam" or sauce at a later date.