The Fruit Leather Lay-Away Plan: 

a simple way to reduce waste, and ensure tasty, nutritious fruit leather 

When freezing berries throughout the summer months, I always have a few smallish, irregular or slightly soft berries that are better used in fruit leather. Also, from my berry plants I glean berries a little today and a little tomorrow, just enough to eat and to freeze a quart or two at a time. When I have odd lots of berries or seasonal fruit, I pack them in a freezer bag and label it "Berries for Leather".

As the season progresses, we go through harvests of strawberries, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, peaches, and pears from our garden. I supplement with market bought fruit as needed for storage, and there are always soft (not rotten) fruits and small amounts of leftovers from the canning or freezing process. I throw them in the same baggie until it is full and I then start another one.

Finally in September when the apples are ready, I make applesauce with my imperfect apples. Then I thaw the contents of the "Berries for Leather" bag, puree' it and stir it into my applesauce. I usually have about 3 times as much applesauce as other mixed fruit. I use 12 cups of fruit puree' to fill 8 dehydrator trays. Your dehydrator will be different. I use the Nesco Professional Food and Jerky Dehydrator with 12" trays with the fruit leather liners installed. On each tray I use 1 1/2 cups of puree'. This makes a nice, just-right thickness, which has a great chewiness without being sticky or brittle.

BTW, the reason I have 8 trays is because after 16 years of faithful service, my old Nesco fan died. I bought a new dehydrator with identical trays, saved the old ones and stacked my dehydrator higher, allowing me to dry more at a time.