Fruit Leather, Round 3

After receiving a tip from some close friends (Rachel, Tim, Jordan and Christian, thanks!!) we set off for a final search of lingering autumn olive berries. The farm trail and fields at Monticello Trail were loaded. These late clingers were extra sweet and quite easy to pick. Leaves had dropped in many cases and the stems could be "zipped" with a partially closed hand...and a small pail held beneath.
In total, we collected 2 1/2 gallons of fruit in about 1 hour. This produced 36 fruit leather strips, 3" x 5" each. We poured the pulp a little thicker this time (3/8" +/-) in order to get thicker leather, with good results. We added no sweetener to the mix this time, and ended up with a slightly sweeter product than on previous attempts.
After mashing the berries through the sieve, a large ball of seeds and skins was made. The size of the ball indicated that the majority of the autumn olive fruit was in fact water. The total volume of the ball and the leather was far less than a gallon. exact measurements will have to wait till' next year's autumn olive adventures!
As a side note, today is November 25th, and yesterday I noticed several autumn olive shrubs still had a full crop of berries. They are beginning to soften, shrivel and mold, however. Much more exploration will be needed to begin to understand why some shrubs hold fruit longer, and why some are sweeter than others. For this year, it appears that November 20 was the cut-off date for efficient, reliable, and high-volume harvest in the Charlottesville area.