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The bulk of my apples are juiced and frozen for drinking the rest of the year, a few are made into cider, and I process others in several different ways. I seldom freeze much apple puree now as my freezer is getting full, when there's space in the new year I will puree stored apples that are looking dubious. However I am making puree for fruit leather; an ancient sweet that's healthy, tasty and keeps well.

Using apple puree as the base ingredient it's given more flavour with fruits I have frozen or with any of my jams or jellies that have failed to set. (The extra sugar is no problem, indeed even an advantage.) Blackcurrant and strawberry are my kids' favourites, however almost any strong flavoured fruit can be used.

The cooked combined purees are sieved to remove bits and reduced by simmering till thickened. Spread 1-2cm deep on oiled trays the puree is slowly dried to a flexible sheet that can be peeled off and hung to dry further. Dusted with corn starch to stop it sticking this can be folded up and stored, or used immediately.

Bits are chewed as sweets - the concentration of sugars, flavours and acids makes them really tasty. My kids' favourite is when it's sliced thinly into chewy 'snakes'.

Of course I also dry some apples as rings- simply cored, peeled, sliced and strung up to dry. However I find apple rings a bit pappy, and pear rings, or halves, a bit greasy.

Nashis with blossom

Much much better are dried nashis, these fruits resemble a russet apple but are an Asian pear, I grow the Kumoi variety. (A small tree, self fertile and problem free other than brittle branches.) The dried rings of these are intensely flavoured, get sweeter as chewed and of a good texture, so I make more of these than of the other fruits. (Incidentally although many plums dry fairly well and are delicious at first I only process a few as in storage they relentlessly turn to prunes - and I can only handle so many of those.)

My other pears are cropping well, I'm checking them daily to pick and store each at its best, especially the gorgeous Doyenne du Comice I grow on a wall, these will be so good next month. But pears always over-crop and many go over before you can eat them. A simple way of using these is to juice them. Unfortunately it's hard to squeeze pear juice out - unripe and the juice is sour, ripe or over and the fruits 'toothpaste’.

Instead surplus pears are washed and chopped, packed into a big saucepan and simmered overnight with only enough water to cover the bottom of the pan. In the morning the lot have reduced to juice and the bits which I sieve out. The juice is then either drunk as is, frozen for later or best of all boiled down to a thick liquid much resembling, and used just like, maple syrup.

Find more ideas for using up your apples and pears on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Food website.

Bob Flowerdew is an organic gardener and panellist of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time.