Chokecherry Jelly Recipe

Late summer and fall, you might notice that your chokecherry trees are starting to ripen fruit. We have several recipes to take advantage of this backyard treat. Today, we are showing you how to make our favorite Chokecherry Jelly recipe. This recipe is part of our Foraging Minnesota series. If you like this kind of gathering and preserving, check out more on that page. This article has affiliate links to Amazon.

Ingredients

• Chokecherry
• Pectin – https://amzn.to/2MMeX56

Equipment Needed

• Food Mill (in lieu of a food mill, you could crush it in a colander) – https://amzn.to/2MNn5Cg
• Jelly Bag (A flower sac kitchen towel or cheesecloth would work) – https://amzn.to/2MNjpk9
• Pint Jars and Lids – https://amzn.to/2xzuK1J

Printable Cherry Jelly Recipe

This recipe can be printed for your convenience. I have more detail below with a step by step demonstration of how we make this jelly.

Pick Your Cherry Tree

First, you have to identify a chokecherry tree. Don’t confuse a chokecherry tree with a buckthorn. The berries from both trees look similar, but the plants are easily discernable. Buckthorn is poisonous both raw and cooked, while the chokecherry can be eaten after it has been cooked. More on how to identify a chokecherry here, or look at the pictures I took of each below.

Buckthorn Look Like This:

These images below show a BUCKTHORN and it’s berries. Notice the difference in color, the leaf, and the bark. The overall tree will look much different too. Buckthorn commonly has spikes and is much bushier on the bottom while a cherry tree is more tree-shaped.

A Chokecherry Tree Looks Like This:

When I was about 20 years younger, my family planted some in our yard so I know that we are eating cherries, but if you aren’t sure, here’s a USDA plant guide to teach you more about chokecherry.

Picking a cherry tree is very easy to do. You will find that the cherries can be stripped off by the handful. I picked about four gallons of cherries in 15 minutes.

Make the Cherry Juice

The first part of making any jelly is usually to make a juice out of the fruit. Many recipes call for you to pit and stem your strawberries. Try one. I dare you. Then think of how many countless hours this would take to do gallons of cherries. Ok, now, do it my way. Rinse the cherries off in the sink removing the big leaves and pieces of wood that might have fallen in so they look like this:

Put them in a large stock pot and barely cover the cherries with water.

Bring to a boil and let simmer for half an hour.

Run the pulpy, popped cherries, through a food mill and strain through a cloth or jelly filter. It may take several hours for the juice to drain all the way through. Do not squeeze too much of the juice out in the end because it will squeeze out some milky solids.

Make the Jelly

When the juice has finished dripping, you can bring it right on over to the stove again and put in your sugar.

Bring the mixture to a hard boil and stir it for exactly one minute. Then pour in the pectin. Again, bring it to a boil and stir it for exactly one minute. Remove from heat and strain off any foam.

Ladle the mixture into prepared cans for a water bath. The cans need to have been washed and then sanitized in boiling water for 10 minutes prior to being packed. When packing the cans, leave one quarter inch of headspace in the jar. Once packed, place the lids on top and fingertip tighten the rings. Place in a large boiling pot for 5 minutes ensuring at least 1-2 inches of water cover the bottles. Remove and let cool, checking that the lids all popped.

If you liked this chokecherry jelly recipe, you may also enjoy these other Jams and syrups you can make from wild trees:

• Home Made Crab Apple Jelly
• How to Make Homemade Maple Syrup

Other Preserved foods:

• Dill Pickle Recipe For Water Bath Canning
• Drying Herbs Fresh From The Garden
• Preserved Roasted Tomatoes
• Refrigerator Pickles
• Small Batch Salsa Recipe

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