Trust The Process: Making Fruit Leather

by maddy johnson

Sometimes I forget to trust in the ebb and flow of things–the natural cycles

and rhymes that govern the universe and our day to day lives. You’d think I’d

have internalized that a bit more now… given the work I’m engaged in: there’s a

reason why we harvest apples in September and citrus in February; it’s why we

plant tomatoes in May; it’s the capricious colors dotting the hillsides where I scout

and collect native seeds. The world’s in constant flux, with different things

blooming and dying in unison. But alas. I think this lesson may have just sunken

in for good while making fruit leather (my frontal lobe is also (allegedly) fully

developed as of two weeks ago, so that may be playing a part here too…).

At the end of June, I’m spearheading a summer art camp with the local

arts center focusing. Our partnership serendipitously formed when I reached out

for discounted watercolor classes. The arts center just so happened to be

seeking out produce for their afterschool program–as well as another instructor

for their youth summer art camp. Focusing on plant-based fashion, this camp is

an opportunity to converge several of my interests: art, youth education, waste

reduction, farming, etc. My head started spinning with ideas–I mean, fruit is pretty

cute. And my co-worker Riley and I had already been making dehydrated citrus

jewelry with kids as part of our Kids Farm Connection program.

Dehydrated fruit jewelry crafting table

How hard could it be? I had a million different ideas for locally sourced, plant-based adornments: natural dying projects, dehydrated fruit jewelry, fruit leather accessories, potato

stamping galore. I had so much fun envisioning the different possibilities. That is

something I do love about myself–I am imaginative, I love to dream of what could

be. A lot of the time though, that’s all it amounts to. A vision. Somewhere in

between dreams (my coworker who I was doing the camp with left for another job

and GrizzlyCorps got defunded), I forgot that it was all on me to make my vision

come to life. Lots of people were counting on me to make this happen–me

included. I owed this to myself. So I started grasping at all of my lofty ideas,

wondering how I was going to ground them in reality.

This past month I’ve been incredibly stressed acquiring materials and

ensuring the crafts are actually feasible. As it turns out, fruit leather is harder to

make than it seems. I had figured the berries would come to me. Turns out, we

weren’t gleaning or receiving many berries. Or plants that work for natural dying.

I knew from the beginning that the camp’s materials would be left up to nature. I

was having a hard time accepting that reality, though. I wanted things to get

done, now. I was sick of sitting in the uncertainty of it all. Trust in the universe?

No thanks.

Fruit jewelry crafting, fruit leather accessories, potato stamping.

That said, things have been slowly falling into place. As they always do.

A few weeks ago, I was walking around the farm I work at when I noticed a

peculiar tree. It had glossy leaves. Growing in clusters were orange, oblong

fruits. Living in the high desert for the majority of my life, I’d never seen anything

like it before. I learned that it was a loquat tree, native to China. I took it in and

went on with my life. The next day, my coworker Nicolas noted that loquat tree

leaves produced a blush-colored natural dye. Huh. Guess who knows where we

can find a loquat tree. And perhaps the fruit would make good fruit leather, too…

Little by little, mostly everything I was so worried about has fallen into

place. We’re getting dye flowers donated. We received a large donation of

onions. Onion skins also make a greenish colored dye. We’ve also recently

started thinning apples at the farm. The other day I impulsively sliced a baby

apple in half with my clippers. Marveling at the miniature star that nestled the

seeds, I realized I had more jewelry making material right in front of me (much

needed after a kiwi resin casting failure). All it took was a little presence in the

world around me to recognize I had everything I needed all along. And some

luck. And some faith. And trust. All those things.

Naturally dyed fabrics

This isn’t a new revelation. It is a revelation I have over and over again,

and it always brings me great comfort. This remembering has come at the perfect

time–I’m no longer walking a predetermined path, but I’m trusting that I’ll end up

where I am meant to be, enjoying the season of life that I’m in right now. All that’s

to say is, if you spend all your time wishing for strawberries, you may not notice

the marvelous loquat tree right in front of you.

Natural dye elements in a mason jar