Pixabay.com

Chokecherry season has been overwhelmingly abundant this year! I have picked and juiced enough to make one the biggest batches of jelly ever, and there are still three bushes that are ripening their berries. Those will be another week or ten days. I didn’t have time to actually make the jelly, so all that purple chokecherry goodness is in the freezer waiting for a rainy weekend day, so I have time to jelly and jar it all up!

Fun facts about chokecherries:

They contain anthocyanins, which is a “type of flavonoid, a class of compounds with antioxidant effects,” useful in treating high blood pressure, colds and UTIs

Tree Time Services Inc.

(Verywellhealth.com). Today’s Dietician says they also help to prevent certain kinds of cancers.

The Carbondale Farm says that the fruit could benefit from a name to change to something friendlier or inviting in order to entice people to use them more as a food. Native Americans have always valued this fruit. While the tiny berries are rather tart…okay, beyond tart, the jelly and syrup are delicious, and beautiful.

They are ecologically important because they attract pollinators. Yeah! So, jelly up to the bar.