Utah Fall and Harvest

I don't know about any of you, but I have been a bit cold the last few days with the drastic weather change. I am not disliking it but was not quite ready for it. It has been so fun to hear about everyone and their adventures with preserving garden vegetables and fruit this year. So, I thought I would add my adventures in preserving. Sadly I have not had a garden of my own this year. I have been very lucky to have been shared with by many people from their gardens though. We have greatly appreciated it because there is nothing like fresh produce from a home garden. So needless to say we did not have a lot to can, dry, etc. But a friend in my new ward had a ton of pears and plums on trees and needed to get rid of some of them. I gladly took a bunch and got to work. The two things that I have done with them is good old dried pears. If you have never tried dried pears you should give them a go. They are delicious. The second batch was even better than the first. Then I also have made many, many batches of fruit leather. Isaac and my kids cannot get enough of this stuff. I have made plum (many batches), strawberry, peach and pear, and pear. I tried a couple of different methods and they basically all worked equally well. Basically you take whatever fruit and blend it up. You need 6 cups of fruit. Then the naturalist way is to add some lemon juice and sugar if you want until it tastes good. Then you pour it onto greased cookie sheets and put it in the oven on 200 degrees. I prop my oven open just barely with an oven mitt. It usually takes 12 hours or more. The second method cooks exactly the same way but you add 1/2 C flour and a small jello packet (raspberry, I hear is the best). You put all of the that in pan and cook on medium high until it thickens. Then you cook it exactly the same way. Well I would love to hear what methods you have done or enjoy eating of food preservation. Hopefully soon we will have our own garden to fruits/vegetables to preserve. Also I am so looking forward to beautiful fall leaves. It feels like it has been forever since we have had the opportunity to enjoy them. In AZ they just fall off of the trees, some do anyhow. Nothing pretty about it!