Peachy!

We had our annual Peach Festival here in Lafayette recently! Colorado is the perfect place to have a festival of any kind because we have over 300 days of sunshine so the weather is always perfect, well not this year. It rained straight for 2 days! I mean RAIN, pouring rain, nonstop for 2 DAYS! It was wonderful for many reasons, but a bummer for the peach festival. We braved the weather, dug out the little rain gear that we have and walked to the festival. We ended up getting about 3 dozen yummy organic peaches! I was so excited to get started on making yummy peachy goodness!

I did a little research and decided on making my own fruit leather, I started with some peaches (duh...):

I pitted them, cut em up and put them in the food processor, skin on, and made a puree, nothing added:

Next I put some unbleached parchment paper in a broiling pan, poured in the puree and put it in the oven on it's lowest setting. Ours is 170 degrees, but if it goes to 150 that would be better. The point is to dry it out. So I would occasionally open the oven door and let a little of the heat out. You have to be careful to not let it *cook*. You could also use a food dehydrator or do it in the sunshine, just cover it with a cloth and rubber band it to the pan, so no bugs get in. This could take up to 3 days and I would recommend to take it in at night.

You let it dry in the oven for about 6 hours until it's set and tacky. Let it cool and cut it in to strips.

VIOLA! Fruit Leather! 100% fruit and nothing else except yummy goodness!

It has been a huge hit!!!