Harvest...and Plum Apple Jello Fruit Leather

It's happening, I don't know if you've picked up on the subtle signs and scents of the change of seasons, but autumn is quickly approaching.

I love the change of seasons. I'm almost always ready for a change of pace and seasons by the time that it arrives, though spring never seems to come soon enough.

 This summer I've been especially anxious to welcome autumn...mostly because it means that we will be welcoming a new baby as well.

Our trees are full of ripening fruit that needs to be harvested.  My parents have lots of fruit trees on their property, and I grew up pressing cider, making applesauce, drying plums etc during the late summer and early fall.  While I don't love the work that is required to harvest the fruit, it is rewarding to see the food preserved and to enjoy it through out the year.

I haven't had the energy to care for our yard and trees like I would have liked to, but thankfully, our trees are still producing fruit.  Our plum tree is full of bite size fruit, and I finally got around to doing something with them.  My fruit dryer is running, and we're making our first batch of fruit leather.  Here's to hoping that it turns out.  I followed the basic jello fruit leather recipe that I found here.  If for some reason it doesn't set up, at least our home will have the sweet smell of harvest.

For our plum fruit leather I used 1 cup of pureed plums, 1 cup of applesauce, a bit of raspberry syrup that my mom and I made earlier this year, and one small packet of strawberry jello.

Are your fruit trees full of fruit, if so you might be interested in viewing the apple picking vest that I made for my dad this last Christmas.  As I was gathering plums in a plastic grocery sack I was wishing that I had a vest of my own, but I'm already carrying a little extra weight in my mid section.

Happy Harvesting!