I have learned to hide my homemade fruit leather. Every time I make some, everyone rushes to eat it, and it hardly makes it through the winter.

A dehydrator is one of my favorite tools for extending the storage life of some snack foods. A few years ago, I needed to replace the dehydrator and found a used one on Facebook Marketplace. With ten shelves and warm air circulating over the food, moisture is removed, making it harder for bacteria, yeast and mold to grow. Properly dried foods can then be stored for extended periods.

Apples and bananas are two of my favorite fruits to dehydrate. They provide nutritious snacks without unnecessary additives. I particularly like knowing exactly what goes into these homemade munchies, especially when I can avoid adding sugar.

To dry apples, you’ll need to wash, peel and core them. Cut them into 1/8- to 1/4-inch slices or rings. Slices of bananas should be around 1/4- to 3/8-inch thick. Some people like to prevent fruit from browning by pretreating with a mixture of 50-percent lemon juice and 50-percent water. This is an optional step.

Fruit leather is my all-time favorite dehydrated snack to make since all it takes is some applesauce, spread 1/8-inch thick onto a silicone drying sheet on the dehydrator rack. Purees of strawberries and other fruits can be added to the applesauce. The sky is the limit on experimenting with other flavor combinations.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation recommends drying fruit leather for six to eight hours at 140 degrees Fahrenheit, although drying times may vary. Check the center of the leather to make sure it is no longer wet and does not leave an indentation when touched. Partway through drying, I peel the fruit leather off the sheet and turn it over to help the other side dry.

After it is dry, place it on a piece of plastic wrap and then roll it. This makes it easier to tear off some fruit leather to eat. I store the rolls of fruit leather in an airtight container in a cool, dark place. It lasts for a month at room temperature, though the popular treat is typically eaten long before then.

You can also dry herbs, mushrooms and peppers. Dried herbs are handy to have for cooking, and dried mushrooms can be rehydrated for soups and other recipes. I dried onions once and decided I would not do it again. The smell was too strong and made the kitchen rather unpleasant.

Mostly, though, I think I’ll stick with fruit leather. At least there the biggest problem is finding a place to hide it!