Re: Homemade fruit leather--cost effective?
I've made it for years. Where I live free apples are easy to come by in the early Fall so making fruit leather is almost free. I borrow my IL's dehydrater. It is a big box with about 12 square trays. I line the trays with plastic wrap, then pour the sauce/pureed fruit on top. I cut it into rectangles with the pastic intact. Then I either stack the rectangles or roll them up and put them into a Ziploc bag before freezing. I have experimented with mixing fruits, but apple is always the main ingredient.
I also dehydrate apple slices. I have canned applesauce before, but we don't like it enough for me to do that every year. Instead of sauce I freeze sliced apples, then cook into a chunky sauce when needed.
If you can buy apples for cheap (baking apples from a fruit stand, maybe...the kind that some people buy for their horses) or get them for free I think fruit leather is absolutely cost effective.
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RiverRock, mom to a 24 year old diamond, 22 year old granite, 19 year old pearl, and 16 year old tiger eye. Married for 25 years to a rugged boulder and resting together on the one true Rock.
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