When the weather breaks in Chicago and wisps of green start appearing in vacant lots, sidewalk cracks, and tree branches, I am reminded of the land where I grew up, only an hour away from the bustling metropolis of Chicago. After all, it was not long ago that the land the city now occupies looked much like the rural prairie where I was raised.
One of the things I thought about while walking Porkchop this morning was that one has a tendency to look at things differently as one gets to know them better. In this case, I look at the environment in my neighborhood differently the more I get to know it. The fact that I have identified more and more edible plants now has me paying more attention to what is growing all around me.
Yesterday, on my quest to find and identify a juneberry bush, I came across some fruit-bearing bushes near my house.
I suspected they were juneberries, but I was wrong. I immediately sent the picture to some well-known foragers on the Internet for help in identifying these beautifully plum berries. One forager told me they were definitely not juneberries but didn’t offer an ID. But a local forager replied with a short and to-the-point response:
“They are Aronia melanocarpa–black chokeberry. Juneberries are done in June.”
My disappointment quickly changed to excitement and I sent Chelsea on a gathering mission to experiment with this newfound ultra-local produce.
Internet research prepared me for an astringent fruit with some sweetness. Tasting it raw proved that it is indeed astringent, but it also has a complex fruitiness similar to a blackberry. I could see it being used to great effect in making prairie wine and jam. I knew that a syrup would be a quick way of transforming this newfound fruit from raw and inedible to sweet and palatable with the addition of only water and sugar.
I had about a pint of berries. I put them in a stainless sauce pot and added just enough water to cover.
A slow simmer or boil rendered the berries super soft. At this point, I sieved the berries through a fine strainer with a muddler, leaving the seeds and most of the skins behind.
The resulting liquid is called the “juice.” An equal amount of sugar to juice is added, and the mixture is returned to the pan to cook gently until the sugar is fully dissolved and the mixture is slightly reduced.
That’s it! When it’s cool, you have a sweet, earthy, and exotic fruit syrup from locally foraged berries that are typically nothing more than landscape decoration.
black chokeberry syrup as flavoring in Basque Goxua
black chokeberry syrup on pancakes
I’m so glad you blogged about the black chokeberries. I have 4 of these bushes in my back yard. They were sold as red chokeberries, and have turned out black.
This is the first year that they have gone all out with the fruit production. When I read about how healthy they are, I was thrilled to find out what you have tried!!
Let me know any other advice & if you’re ever in Lincoln, check out this place http://www.breadandcup.com. I’ve done all of the photography for the web, which means that I’ve eaten all of that food. It’s grand!
I’d love to be able to try out some other recipes with the chokeberries such as wine and even drying them. I’ll be sure to post the process.
Known commonly as “chokeberry” or “black chokeberry,” (Photinia melanocarpa has at least two cousins worth mentioning. These are Photinia floribunda, also known as Aronia Atropurpurea, the “purple chokeberry,” and Photinia pyrifolia, also known as Aronia arbutifolia, the “red chokeberry.” The former ranges from Mississippi to Wisconsin, Georgia into Canada, and all areas in between. The latter ranges from Texas-Oklahoma eastward through Tennessee to the Atlantic and from Florida northward into Canada.
The Aronia berry has all of the healthy attributes of the cranberry, but also contains five to ten times the amount of anthocyanins and polyphenols of a cranberry. The high citric acid and tannin content of the berry gives it its “chokeberry” name. Although the berry is strongly fruit-flavored, I have not yet made a strongly flavored wine from aronia berries alone. However, the juice and the wine blends well with other berry juices and wines (e.g. cranberry, blackcurrant, blackberry, black raspberry, black cherry) and should be made with blending in mind if the flavor turns out weak.
ARONIA BERRY WINE
3 lbs aronia berries
1/2 lb dark raisins, chopped or minced
2 lbs finely granulated sugar
1 tsp citric acid
1-1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
1 crushed Campden tablet
3/4 tsp pectic enzyme
water to 1 gallon
Lalvin 71B-1122 (Narbonne) wine yeast
Bring 1 qt water to boil and pour over minced raisins, sugar and citric acid in primary. Stir until completely dissolved and cover. After two hours, stir in crushed Campden tablet and recover primary. Allow to sit 12 hours or overnight. Put aronia berries in nylon straining bag and, while wearing clean rubber kitchen gloves, mash berries with hands in primary. Stir in pectic enzyme, yeast nutient and 2-1/2 quarts cold water. Recover primary and set aside additional 12 hours. Add activated yeast and recover primary. Stir and squeeze bag with berries daily while wearing rubber gloves. After seven days, remove bag and squeeze to remove all juice. Recover primary and allow additional three days of fermentation of minced raisins. Strain off raisins while transferring liquid to secondary. Top up and attach airlock. Rack, top up and refit airlock every 30 days for 90 days. Set aside additional 90 days, rack, stabilize, and sweeten to taste. If wine tastes flat, dissolve 1/8 teaspoon tannin (more, if required) in 1/2 cup of wine and stir into secondary. Top up, refit airlock, and after final 30 days rack into bottles or blend with other wines.
I borrowed this from a Wine maker’s list.
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