Chokecherry Syrup Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best way to juice chokecherries? ›

To extract the juice, clean the cherries and pour into a large pot, adding just enough water to cover. Simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the fruits are soft and have released their juice, about 30 minutes. Gently strain through a jelly bag or cheesecloth-lined colander into a bowl.

An old-time Montana favorite, the tart, sweet 'cherry' flavor always has customers saying “it's just like grandma used to make it.” Another wilderness delight for your pancakes, French toast, and waffles.

Jars of chokecherry syrup will keep for a good long while on your pantry shelf; we're still eating some from a few years back. Once you open the jar, make sure to refrigerate any leftovers, though I doubt there will be much left once your family tastes all that sweet goodness!

Add chokecherries to water and bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer. Stir occasionally. Boil until seeds fall out. Use a colander to separate the seeds keeping the pulp with the juice.

To extract the juice, place the cleaned chokecherries in a large pot and add enough water to just barely cover them. Put them on the stove and allow to come to a boil, then reduce to simmer. After about 30 minutes, the berries will have released their juice. The liquid in the pot will be opaque and a dark mauve color.

Chokecherry tea was used to treat everything from anxiety to colds, diarrhea and tuberculosis. Berries were eaten to relieve stomach pain and aid digestion. A common remedy for head colds involved grinding and smoking chokecherry bark like tobacco (Scully, 147).

Chokecherry plants contain the toxin, cyanide, in their leaves and seeds. Horses are commonly found dead after eating chokecherry. Chokecherry fruit is safe for humans to eat.

The chokecherry fruit gall midge is a tiny fly that causes direct damage to the fruit. Adults emerge from overwintering pupae in late May and lay their eggs in the flowers. Tiny yellowish-orange maggots feed on the developing fruit.

One way that chokecherry is different from chokeberry is that the fruit of chokecherry turns black as they mature, whereas red chokeberry fruits stay red through development. Chokeberries are also much more tart than chokecherries are. Chokecherry grows taller, up to 20 feet tall and is denser than chokecherry.

Once harvested, I like to wash them in a colander and freeze them in quart-size freezer bags. When I want to make some chokecherry juice (the first step in making jelly, syrup, etc.), one bag of berries comes out of the freezer and, once thawed, goes in a pot with several cups of water.

What is choke cherry juice good for? ›

The entire berry is rich in disease-fighting antioxidants, flavonoids, anthocyanins and proanthocyanins, each said to possess a high-capacity value at fighting against allergies, viruses and cancer-causing elements. Chokecherries also contain a high dose of quinic acid which is known to prevent urinary tract infection.

Strain the liquid through a sieve or jelly strainer. If you prefer a clearer liquid, don't press down on the chokecherries in an attempt to get more juice out of the berries. This can cause your juice to be cloudy. Another great way to juice chokecherries is with a steam juicer.

While it should be noted that the leaves, bark, and raw seeds of chokecherries do contain a form of cyanide and can potentially be fatal if ingested in large quantities (to both people and livestock), you can eat the flesh of the berries raw. Though be warned, they are quite bitter!

Birds, rabbits, hares, rodents and bears all seek out and eat its fruit. It provides food, cover and nesting habitat for a variety of birds. Birds will also take advantage of its growth form for cover and nesting habitat. It is used extensively by deer as a browse source in the winter.

Collecting the Fruit

Such cherries will taste immensely better than those hastily collected as soon as they darken, as their astringency will be greatly reduced. The time to collect chokecherries is from the middle of August into early September.

Wash the fruit in cool running water. Add water to cover the chokecherries. Bring to a boil in a covered stainless steel or enamel kettle and then simmer for 15 minutes, or until soft. Cool and strain through cheesecloth or a damp jelly bag.

Chokecherry can be propagated by seed, rhizome cuttings, suckers, crown division, semi-hardwood cuttings and grafting. Generally, seed crops are regular and viable. The flowers are more abundant and more fruit is produced on plants growing on open sites or in forest clearings.

The slightly tart fruit is ripe in late July and August. Chokecherry berries were one of the main ingredients in a food commonly used by Plains Indians known as pemmican.