We’ve made hawthorn leather and written about it previously. We’ve also made cherry fruit leather before but this week when Nicola made some she took some photos.
Collect a good helping of cherries; for this leather we used a mixture of wild cherries and cultivated cherries we picked on the farm. We collected them in a basket that Nicola had made.
Leave them outside for a little while to allow any insects to make an escape.
Remove as much of the stems as you can, put the cherries in a pan and gently simmer for a minute or 2 to soften the fruit.
Once softened Nicola used a traditional Victorian potato masher that she made on a pole lathe to pulp the cherries. This is much easier than pulping raw haws!
To remove the seeds, push the pulp through a sieve with the back of a spoon into a bowl.
Pour the mixture onto a sheet of greaseproof paper on a baking tray.
Pop the tray into the oven on it’s lowest temperature; leave the door open a crack. You’ll need to leave the cherry fruit leather in the oven for a good 8 hours or so to remove the water. Alternatively, you could use a de-hydrator.
Once ready it should look like this.
From there Nicola rolled it up.
Cut the cherry fruit leather into strips and store in an airtight container. Our grandkids loved it!!
If you want to try out other fruits and berries, take a look here first.
We sometimes try fruit leathers on our 1 Day Foraging Course.
You can see plenty of photos from this and all of our other courses on our Facebook page.
