I didn’t think I would make serviceberry jelly again this year. I did last year as the crop was so gigantic. This year a huge crop as well. Where I work,
we grow Autumn Brilliance in the field for BB tree production. Just happened to give a nursery tour last week Thursday and found a field of Autumn Brilliance loaded with fruit and easy to pick. I always hit the crop that is 4’-6’ tall so I can pick all I want with no ladder. Came back to work Saturday morning and picked what I needed. Sill amazed that so many do not eat serviceberry. Friends who came to visit this past holiday weekend never heard of serviceberries but all who tried the raw fruit and my jelly agreed it was really good. One even commented “better than blueberries!”.
Noticed 2 giant serviceberries right outside the doors of my supermarket by the entryway. Loaded with fruit. I stopped and sampled. Amazed as everyone walked by and nobody seemed to notice such wonderful fruit and free too. I guess they prefer to buy the Smuckers jam/jellies inside instead. I feel sorry for them as really missing on some of the finest jelly they could make themselves.
No seeds for me. After cooking and mashing the fruit, I run it thru my jelly strainer so all juice but no seeds or skins. My strainer is a tip I learned from my grandmother when I was a boy. Buy and use a pillowcase. I bought a cheap one and just use it for jelly making. It gets stained but I wash it out and save for the next time I make jelly. Fill it with the cooked fruit (once cool) and squeeze away. Works great.
That sounds great. Any way I could get the seeds out before the absorb so much of the berry’s juice. If I could crush the seeds between steel roller it would be much better.
Growing-up they were a native berry and could be found in many of the ravines of the northern plains. Lots of memorys going out with the buckets and picking June berries(serviceberry) and Choke cherries. Mom would make Juneberry pie and she’d make sauce and jelly from the chokecherries. There is a good deal of fiber in a slice of Juneberry pie lol. We loved the chokecherry sauce mixed about 50/50 with some good cream; we’d dip fresh bread into it. Yum.
I had never heard of serviceberry untill I left home and started looking through gardening magezines.
This is so true. Nobody in the Denver area has a clue these things are edible. They are bird food around here. They are used as business landscape plants, I have never seen anyone pick or eat one… I rarely pick them either as I don’t know what has been going on with any sprays etc.
I remember taking a break from fishing next to the river in Durango, I was standing there eating handfuls of Juneberries from a couple trees growing in the riprap along the river that were loaded. A passerby commented, “you’re not eating those poisonous berries are you?”.
Years ago, I planted every available variety I could find online. It took several years before they got large enough to fruit. I discovered the birds love them but no one I know thinks they are worth eating. Including me. I still have all the bushes but grow them strictly for the birds.
Gurneys claim that they taste like blueberries is ridiculous , We made one pie and it didn’t get eaten. Tough skin and little underneath. To be honest have not made jelly but we don’t.t eat a lot of jelly.
Not all serviceberry (juneberry) are good for eating in my area either. I find Regent produces some mighty juicy fruit but not sweet at all. Cumulus has very dry fruit and not worth picking. Autumn Brilliance and also running serviceberry are my favorite (sweet and great flavor). This is in my area however, so those attributes may change if grown elsewhere. If we have a dry season then all can have tasteless and dry fruit sometimes.
I wish you all could taste how sweet and wonderful the Autumn Brilliance are this year in my area. Truly as good as blueberries in flavor.
There are lots of serviceberry planted around the medical center where I work. They vary a bit, so probably seed grown, but all of them produce really good flavored berries. The best are along a busy sidewalk that keeps the birds away. I have had people come up to me on multiple occasions when I’m picking and eating them, and telling me I should not be eating those poisonous berries! I proceed to ask them if they even know what they are, and no they have no clue, but still insist they are poisonous. I tell them what they are, and they just walk away unconvinced. More for me I guess.
This spring, the trees/shrubs were severely trimmed, so very few fruit which were 100% infected with rust. Maybe next year.
A nursery nearby went out of business after 80+ years in business. I went up there days before they closed hoping to get a good deal on whatever serviceberries they had left. They only had around 2-3 trees of each typical fruit tree and then they had a section of like 20+ Autumn Brilliance trees. Most people think they are just bird food.
seviceberries are wild here. i have 3 on my property. until I visited this site i had no idea they were edible. since then ive planted 2 northline, 2 jb30 , 2 smoky and a apple serviceberry. northline gave me a dozen fruit last summer but something destroyed the flowers this spring. the fruit was tasty. my 20ft wild one growing out of my spruce hedgerow has about 50 berries on it which are small but very tasty. ill probably graft it over to several cultivars next spring.
I remember many years back having a serviceberry pie made from a neighbors tree, I still remember how delicious that pie was. I bet the preserves are excellent!
