Fruit leather survival food

Home made fruit leather

Fruit leather supposed to originate from the eastern country’s and is known as “Pestil” in Turkey, “Bastegh” or “Pastegh” in Armenia, “Qamar al deen” in Lebanon, Syria and other Arab countries and “Fruit roll” or “Fruit leather” in the United States. Back in 1802 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explored the unknown western portion of the United States. They needed to pack as efficiently as possible and when it came to food, non-perishable was essential so fruit leather was part of the team’s diet.

It’s a great easy snack for on the trail and has all the vitamins, carbohydrates and energy you need but also very light and easy to pack.

No doubt it was used way back in different country’s and cultures, I read somewhere that fruit was mashed up then strained through a muslin cloth and dried in the sun on a fine damp muslin sheet. Take for example the old sailors suffering from scurvy…….they used to pack barrels full of rosehip as it prevented scurvy due to lack of vitamin c….can you imagine the weight and storage space they would have saved using this method.

So I came to the conclusion that id like to try and make some myself so I set out picking various berry’s and fruit to add to my fruit leather. Below are the wild edibles I collected.

1 bowl of Rowan berry’s 1 bowl of Hawthorn berry’s 1 bowl of elder berry’s 1 bowl of rose hips 5 wild apples.

The idea is to process the berry’s then cook it down to a thick syrup-like substance and dry out on parchment paper. You can add whatever berry’s or fruit you like.

If you want to learn how to properly make your own bushcraft fruit leather for on the trail then just watch the video below…..

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