Choke cherry pickers

[brockel]

Went out this evening to pick some choke cherries. This years crop is one of the better ones I’ve seen. Luckily the birds haven’t got to them yet. Must be filled up on grasshoppers. Didn’t take long to collect a few gallons of them with my good help.

 

[Gerald Martin]

What do you make with them?

 

[brockel]

What do you make with them?

Syrup mostly. Have made jelly and bounce

 

[Ajax2744]

Congrats! We have them growing all along the creek at our cabin. Growing up my grandpa would make syrup and jelly out of it. It was always "special" to eat pancakes with grandpa's syrup.

Funny enough it seems every year I had a bear tag for our cabin they would get picked clean about 5-7 days before season started and then the bears were never seen again lol.

 

[diamond hitch]

Many years ago when I was but a young lad, my mother decided to make chokecherry jelly. She collected a sizable volume and set about the chore. Someplace she somehow she failed to get the correct amount of pectin and we ended up with something like 50 pints of really runny jelly. Years later, in a despiration move because of running out of pancake syrup, I was sent to the basement to see if the runny jelly might fill the gap. When we opened the jar we discovered it had fermented and created lightable pancake syrup with a real snap. One of the saiddest days of my youth was when the last jar of mom's 80 proof pancake syrup was gone.

 

[antlerradar]

look a little on the red side for me. I used to like them best after a light frost. Any more with all the bears, they are gone long before the first frost.

 

[brockel]

look a little on the red side for me. I used to like them best after a light frost. Any more with all the bears, they are gone long before the first frost.

If we wait that long the damn birds beat us to them

 

[brockel]

look a little on the red side for me. I used to like them best after a light frost. Any more with all the bears, they are gone long before the first frost.

 

[hank4elk]

Going to plant some with wild plums along my fencelines. Love the syrup & jam.

 

[D4570]

I have them in my back yard, more them the birds and us can use every year.
Last year we had no robins, the branches touched the ground.
This year goobs of robins, there still very red I hope I get some.
We make jelly and chokecherry vinaigrette to marinate beef before BBQ-ing.

 

[El Jason]

Love chokecherry syrup!

 

[NoWiser]

I mistook buckthorn for chokecherries as a kid. The results were similar to Big Fin's chili fiasco. I just have trouble eating anything that looks like them anymore.

 

[MThuntr]

oh man I missed the big chokecherry coulees over there. I lived in Ekalaka about 20 years ago and we picked 5 gallon buckets full. So much syrup.

 

[kansasdad]

My parents came for a visit once, and brought both sand plum jelly and some chokecherry syrup. As my dad was eating his third plate of waffles, I commented about the speed with which he had eaten the first two, and showed no signs of slowing. He mentioned how good the chokecherry syrup tasted this morning. As I was manning the waffle iron, I hadn’t eaten anything just yet and was looking forward to my first taste of this yummy syrup. Like It happened to @diamond hitch, the syrup had turned into high proof chokecherry liqueur! And boy was it potent and tasty all at the same time.

 

[RobG]

What do you make with them?

The syrup goes really well with slow cooked venison. If you are ever in bozeman I’ll give you a jar .

The last time I made some I didn’t smash the berries to get any more juice. The smashed berries have a lot of bitter fibers in them that are difficult to filter out because they clog the filter.

Instead I just simmered them until most of the flavor was out of the berry. Then i filtered the juice and proceeded like you normally do for syrup or jelly.

 

[D4570]

I was just in Bozy at the Museum, Too bad, I did not stop and get a jug...
Thanks but we have our own.
I have been growing concord grapes too, mix the two for some outrageous "Boons Farm" wine.

 

[longbow51]

Some friends make chokecherry wine on good berry years. I thought it would be a little sweet and syrupy, but it was surprisingly light and pretty dry. On a related alcoholic note, we have Canadian red cherries in our yard. Typically they are fermented when the cedar waxwings migrate through and feast on them. We have tons of large windows and lots of bumps and feather smudges for the week or so they are here.

 

[longbow51]

I was just in Bozy at the Museum, Too bad, I did not stop and get a jug...
Thanks but we have our own.
I have been growing concord grapes too, mix the two for some outrageous "Boons Farm" wine.

Now there's a flash from the Past!

 

[RobG]

I was just in Bozy at the Museum, Too bad, I did not stop and get a jug...
Thanks but we have our own.
I have been growing concord grapes too, mix the two for some outrageous "Boons Farm" wine.

Wow, I haven't had Boon's Farm since I was 14.

 

[MTLabrador]

My grandmother would always make syrup and jelly with the chokecherries that grew at the ranch. I sure miss that.