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HOW TO MAKE FRUIT LEATHER Fill blender ¾ full with pitted ripe apricots, plums, pears, peaches or combinations of fruit available. It is okay to leave the peel on everything with the exception of peaches, bananas and thick skinned apples. Most fruits are more flavorful if you don't peel them. Add about ¼ cup water, one tablespoon of lemon juice or ½ teaspoon ascorbic acid and one heaping tablespoon of sugar or honey per blender load. Blend on high speed until the fruit has turned to pulp. If you do not have a blender available, the fruit can also be ground in an old fashioned hand grinder. Prepare cookie sheets by lining them with sturdy plastic wrap. Be careful to make sure you leave no seams in the wrap and that the plastic sheet is wide enough to cover the entire bottom of the cookie sheet with at least ½ inch of wrap hanging over on all sides of the pan. Pour the pulp onto the cookie sheet and smooth it around with a spatula so that it is level and about 1/3 inch thick. Secure the edges of the plastic to the cookie sheet with tape in four or five places to keep it from folding back over your pulp. Place cookie sheets outside on a card table in a dry sunny location. Cover with cheese cloth that is propped away from the pulp by using pop bottles with cork stoppers to hold the cloth in place or quart jars with rings to tighten over the cheese cloth and keep the cloth from touching the fruit. Use masking tape to secure the base of the cheese cloth to the card table and keep the wind from blowing it into the wet fruit. The cheese cloth prevents insects from contaminating the leather as it dries. Each batch usually takes about 12 to 24 hours to dry depending on the humidity and how sunny and hot your weather is. Do not attempt to make leather on wet humid days as it will spoil before it can dry. After the fruit has dried so that it is of a leather like consistency you need to peel it off the plastic wrap and turn it upside down. Leave the leather to cure in the sun for another three or four hours making sure it is thoroughly dry around all the edges and on the back. Slice the leather it into small rectangles. You can roll up each rectangle and store it in an air tight container or gallon jar for several months.