By Olivia Bergeron

This summer, I've made it my mission to find and taste as many edible plants as possible. 

I had my eye on a chokecherry tree at my friend's house, but the birds beat me to the fruit. Thankfully, they had not yet discovered the western sandcherries on the other side of her house. These larger cherries were significantly sweeter than the chokecherries I expected to come home with, so I filled my bucket with those instead. 

Picking sandcherries is a wonderful task for kids. There are no thorns on this drought tolerant, low growing shrub, and it'll save you the trouble of getting down under the bush to get the best berries. Focus on choosing the largest, darkest berries rather than getting every last one. These will yield the best flavor and will be easier to process. 

CHOKECHERRY APPLE BUTTER

from Fruits of Your Labor: a Cookbook for Windbreak Fruits by Colorado State Forest Service

4 cups apple pulp

2 cups chokecherry pulp

5 cups sugar

½ tsp. almond extract

Prepare pulp of both fruits first by putting cooked fruit (unsweetened) through a sieve or food mill. Heat to a boil, stirring carefully. Add sugar. Stir constantly until it just begins to thicken. Add extract and blend. Ladle into sterilized hot jars to within ¼ inch of the top of jar. Wipe rims; adjust lids. Process in boiling water bath for 10 minutes at 5,000 feet or 15 minutes above 6,000 feet. Remove from canner. Makes 8 half pints.

Instead of reading this lovely recipe above from the complementary booklet available in our office at Suite 3290 of the Park County Complex, I found a copy of it on a third party site with some different measurements. I ended up just making it up as I cooked.

My recipe ended up looking more like this:

WESTERN SANDCHERRY APPLE BUTTER

8–10 cups chopped apples

3 cups western sandcherries

2 cups water

3 cups sugar

¼ tsp almond extract

¼ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp ginger

½ tsp cinnamon

I chopped up a bucket of apples without removing the skins. Any apples will work for this recipe. I used a bucket of softer apples that did not have a very strong flavor. Next time, I want to use a more flavorful variety such as crabapples.

Pit your cherries. I started off using a knife, but it was much faster to squish the seeds out by hand. If the berry is ripe, it’ll pop right out. Like apple seeds, these pits contain amygdalin, a chemical that is converted into cyanide when eaten. Many sites list Prunus besseyi as poisonous because of this chemical, but the fruit's flesh is safe to consume.

I added the chopped apples and about a cup of the pitted cherries to a large pot on low heat. I added a bit of water and let it cook down for about an hour, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot often to keep the bottom from burning. My recipe did not call for including the cherries' flesh here, but I decided to include some for added texture. I used a potato masher to crush the fruit along the way.

I boiled the rest of the cherries down in a separate pot with a cup of water, then strained the juices into my apple pot. I added my sugar and continued stirring. The almond extract was overpowering, so I balanced it out with vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. I let the mixture cool and blended it up with a normal blender.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out! My foraging forays rarely result in such delicious treats.

Have you made something delicious with fruit from trees from our Tree Program? Let us know!