By Kelli Bowen
We have a little 7 1/2 acre slice of Heaven. We promptly planted some fruit trees: a few apple, a couple pear and a couple white mulberry trees. Then we found out a bit later that it was EVEN BETTER because the people who had owned our place once upon a time had been intentional with their tree choices and we already have a large maple, that we hope to tap when winter comes. There are crab-apple trees, which are great for pectin, this comes in handy for making syrups and jellies. There are already apple trees nearing the end of their life cycle, plus there are chokecherries! Our treeline is full of chokecherries! That makes this a berry fun place to live around this time of year. (see what I did there)
I always think of my grandmother when I’m making syrup or jelly. I love that food is just growing on its own in my yard. I’m not tending to it. I’m not doing anything, but in the fall there are berries and fruit just hanging around. My girls are always excited about harvesting the berries…well for about 10 minutes, then they get bored and do something else. Hubby and I usually end up doing most of the picking.
There’s a little sadness if we don’t harvest the berries but the wildlife seem more than happy when we don’t. Out of everything, my favorite berry to cook with is probably chokecherries and my favorite is chokecherry syrup! I have a pretty straight-forward recipe. I’ve seen some fancy and more complicated methods, so feel free to try those also, but this is what I do. (I’ve also found I’m very much a dumper when I cook so these measurements are approximate)
Pick the chokecherries. This can take anywhere from an hour to a week depending on the level of “help” your small humans are willing to give you, how many spiders scare people and cause the bowl-holder to jump, and how many choke cherries are then picked out of the tall grass. May the odds be ever in your favor.
Clean all of the leaves, stems, leftover spiders, etc, and rinse the chokecherries, then measure and put in a large kettle. Put four cups of chokecherries and four cups of water (if you were overzealous, use 6 cups and 6 cups-you do you boo), then bring to a boil, cover and boil for 30-ish minutes.
I let it cool a little bit, because I’m clumsy and accident prone and don’t want to add ‘take trip to the burn unit’ to the list. Strain the concoction from the kettle through a sieve with a cheesecloth and into another large kettle. I have realized mid-boil that I’m out of cheesecloth so I have just strained, mashed and then put in a bowl or bottle and popped the whole thing into the refrigerator until I get the cheesecloth.
Let’s assume you have the cloth: mash the berries into the strainer to get the maximum juice, but be careful because chokecherry pits are toxic when crushed, so you don’t want to smash them to smithereens-just coax the juice out.
Once you’ve coaxed all the juice out without fear of poisoning everyone, add sugar to the juice…not the pit slop. Remember our simple math? Use four cups of sugar if you used 4 cups of cherries. If you’ve been paying attention, you might notice, it’s 4 cups of cherries, 4 cups of water and now 4 cups of sugar. Keep it simple! If you increased to 6 cups, use 6. If you don’t like sweet things, why are you making syrup you weirdo! (just decrease the sugar)
Then I add a little lemon juice to the syrup, a couple tablespoons, and some almond extract. I like almond, so I’m a little heavy-handed with it, so let’s say 4 teaspoons (really it’s probably 4 tablespoons, seriously LOVE almond). I’m just trying to keep the pattern of fours going at this point.
Then simmer/light boil this again, stirring with a metal whisk often, so it doesn’t burn to the kettle. It will start to thicken. If it doesn’t, put some pectin in it, just a teaspoon should do it. If it’s still super-runny, you can put another teaspoon of pectin in. It’s syrup, not rocket science, just go with it.
Hubby’s grandmother used to say, she just always tried for jelly and if it stayed runny, she called it syrup. Either way, whatever consistency, it will be delicious. Plus if it flops, you’re only out your time and the cost of supplies (it won’t flop). You could get really creative and just call it ice cream sundae topping. It’s flavored juice and sugar-you can’t go wrong, unless you give everyone botulism, which is why the next part is important:
Immediately host an epic pancake feast! If you need to save the syrup, put it in sterilized jars and run it in a hot water bath for about 10 minutes. Proper canning equals no botulism. Don’t slack with sterilization.
Okay! Now you have a big batch of choke cherry jelly, syrup, topping or sludge.
Whatever you have. Good for you! Way to try it out!
When it’s frigid outside and you’re looking for a taste of late summer, chokecherry syrup is just about as good as you can get. Happy berry picking!!
Kelli makes her home in rural Cass County with her husband, two daughters (8 and 5), two dogs, and random poultry. She works for a regional seed company by day and tries to be an alright mom, wife, friend and writer by night.
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