Fruit Leathers

In addition to making jams, jellies, chutneys, syrups, fruit gins, wine and vinegar, summer and autumn berries can also be used to make fruit leathers. This is a very ancient way of preserving fruit, particularly in the old food cultures of the eastern Mediterranean with mulberries, grapes, apricots, apples, plums and cherries. Our Highland ancestors would have used this technique too. My son, who teaches ancestral skills, makes leathers from rowanberries, elderberries, blaeberries and cowberries. His outdoor process involves manually pressing the raw berries through a sieve with his fist to get a thick pectin-packed pulp which he spreads out thin to air-dry, but you can also purée the raw fruit in a blender or put the fruit in a pan and heat gently until soft and pulpy before puréeing it in a blender. Once pressed through a sieve, you can return the purée to the pan to heat gently until thick. If the purée is too tart for your liking, you can add a little honey or sugar – rowans and cowberries benefit from sweetening – and then tip the mixture onto lined baking sheets, spreading it thinly and evenly.