Chokecherry Syrup Recipe - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

What does chokecherry syrup taste like? ›

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.

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.

Remove the chokecherries from the stems and rinse with cold water. Chokecherries should be stored covered in the refrigerator and will keep up to one week.

Wash them in cold water, picking out any leaves, stems, or debris that might be floating on the top of the water. You can leave the short stems on the berries; you don't have to pick them off individually.

They contain amygdalin, a product the body converts into cyanide, a deadly poison, after consumption. However, people usually don't eat cherry pits, not even those as small as the ones found in chokecherries.

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.

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).

Snack by eating raw, spitting out the seeds, do not eat too much or it can clog your throat and stick in your teeth. Your teeth will be blue for a little while! Boil chokecherries and remove seeds to make a pudding or syrup.

I make a cut a third to half way across the fruit, then smoosh it in between my fingers to "push/pop" the seed out.

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.

What month are chokecherries ripe? ›

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.

The fruits of chokecherry are used to make wines, syrups, jellies, and jams. The bark is sometimes used as a flavoring agent in cough syrup. American Indians used bark extract to cure diarrhea. The fruits were used to treat canker sores, cold sores, and added to pemmican.

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.

Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana, is a native plant that suckers and grows rapidly. 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.

For best flavor, pick berries when they are dark red or purple. The addition of some lighter-colored (unripe) berries will add pectin . Figure 3. Chokecherry berries grow in loose clusters called panicles, which separate easily when ripe.

The flavor of fresh chokecherries varies quite a bit from one tree to the next; some are very astringent, most are somewhat astringent, and a few are not astringent at all and are wonderful to eat right off the bush. Some people never develop a liking for fresh chokecherries.

The fruit of chokecherry (and other cherry species) isn't harmful to humans. Many use it for making jams, jellies, pies, sauces and wines.

Black or Bing cherries are dark red or almost purple and very sweet. Wild cherries usually have thinner flesh and are dry tasting. Choke cherries are sour and puckerish, they make your mouth feel dry or wooly inside.

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).