Preserving Chokecherries
Last Friday, my friend Patti, and I embarked on an adventure of making Chokecherry Jelly and Jam from the gallons of pulp/juice she had previously prepared. Patti and her cousins picked a five gallon bucket and she was determined to get it all made into jam for small gifts for family and friends everywhere. I was glad to join in to help.
At this time of year, Chokecherries are widely available along river banks and trails, free for the picking! In fact a google search shows that Chokecherries are widely available across the country and into Canada from east to west.
Native Americans of the Northern Plains, and Norther Rockies made cokecherry a staple food by pounding them with seeds included and drying the pulp in the sun to make a sort of fruit leather. How they ate this rather astringent fruit without a bit of sweetening baffles my imagination.
A google search did not lead us to a pulp/jam recipe using the boxed pectin we had on hand, so Patti decided that together we would experiment with the proportions for each batch. She let me make up the proportions of sugar, juice/pulp, and pectin. We made 5 batches in all, including one batch without pectin that got way overcooked because we didn’t know what the “sheeting” stage looked like. (That batch is a bit thick and burned tasting to me – but still yummy!)
No failures Just Learning Experiences/
I learned you can have a lot of fun canning and improvising with what you have on hand, while combining the wisdom and experience of two very different people. I was the one who wanted to follow an exact recipe, Patti was more like just try it and “Let’s see what happens.”
One thing I learned is that it is OK to follow some of our ancestors tried and true methods, even though they may not line up with USDA recommendations. For example we did the jam without waterbath canning because of the high sugar content of the mixture, a method Patti’s family has done for generations and they are still here!
I would love to hear about what you are preserving in your kitchens right now, your family folklore regarding canning methods, and special memories centered around canning.
I’ll let you know how it all turns out once we start opening jars from each batch and what we learned.
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