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The following is from Source:Strickland, 1853 and applies specifically to fruit preservation in Canada, but the processes are similar to those used in Southwest Virginia.
The ladies sometimes call a bee for paring apples for tarts and sauce for winter use. This important business (at least they choose to consider it so) takes place soon after the fruit has been gathered in. The apples are peeled, cored, and strung up from the ceilings of the attics to dry. When they are wanted for pies, puddings and tarts, they are boiled with sugar, and prove very good for those purposes. Some home-made preserves are prepared at small cost by the following process:—Plums, raspberries, and strawberries are boiled with a small quantity of sugar, and spread, about half an inch thick, on sheets of paper, to dry in the sun. This will be accomplished in a few days; after which the papers are rolled up, tied, and for tarts, these dried fruits are taken from the paper, and boiled with a little more sugar, which restores the fruit to its former size and shape.
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