Scottish Soft Fruit preserves

The Northern climate in Scotland (long hours of summer daylight and little scorching summer sun) is particularly suited to growing soft, delicate berries. They ripen slowly to an exceptional sweetness and have grown wild for centuries. In the Tayside area, in particular, large scale commercial growing began in the early twentieth century – strawberries to begin with, later raspberries. This led to the tradition of preserving the fruit in jams and jellies mostly in Dundee, which for a time, was known as the ‘jam capital’ of Scotland.