Serviceberry season is here! Davin and I were on a staycation last week, and if you follow my social media accounts, you will have noticed that I spent a lot of time foraging for summer fruit. This wasn’t on the agenda, but the season is so short — when it comes you have to act fast!
Serviceberries (Amelanchier), aka saskatoon berry, juneberry, shadbush, and about a million other region-specific names, is a small fruit-bearing tree or large bush that grows abundantly here in the northeast. I go by serviceberry because in my mind, the plants do a great public service by producing bucket loads of delicious, incredibly sweet berries that taste like a cross between blueberries and grapes. Pop one into your mouth and enjoy! They are like little balls of sugar. At some point in Toronto history they rose in popularity as a landscape plant and you can find them all over the city. I see them most commonly in city parks, schoolyards, and other public plantings. They are valued for their pretty display of spring flowers and crimson fall colour. Many homeowners have a serviceberry out front and don’t know that the fruit is edible.
Birds love serviceberries, too. When foraging, I am always careful to leave some behind for them to enjoy. This year the crops seem bigger and juicer than usual and I am noticing bushes that are covered with fruit, not a bird in sight. I’ve been going around foraging with friends and we can’t believe the harvest that we have gleaned. This year, serviceberries were selling for $9/pint at the farmers market! So, yeah, foraging is definitely worth the effort. What’s great too is that they require very little effort to process after the work of picking is done. All I do is wash them and pull out any of the little stems that remain. You can pop some into a freezer bag to use later in the year as a pie. This was my original plan, but since I gleaned a windfall, I decided to try my hand at jam.
RECIPE: Serviceberry Jam
You can try mixing in cherries if you don’t have enough serviceberries to make jam. The flavours pair well. I considered adding a small pinch of nutmeg, but decided that for my first batch I wanted to experience the full, unaltered serviceberry flavour.
I tried to keep sugar content down as serviceberries are exceptionally sweet and don’t need it. Feel free to use more sugar if you’d like a firmer set. I prefer to make my jams less sweet and don’t mind if they are a little runnier than store bought.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 pounds serviceberries, washed with stems removed
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- Juice of 1 lemon (about 1/4 cup)
Gently cook the serviceberries and sugar on low heat until the sugar is completely dissolved and the berries are soft. As the berries soften, crush them with a wooden spoon or potato masher.
Add the lemon juice. Turn the heat up to high and bring to a rapid boil to reach set point* (220°F), about 10-15 minutes or so. Times vary depending on variables such as how much liquid is in the fruit and the type and size of pot you are using. Remember to keep stirring!! This prevents the jam at the bottom from scorching and also aids in faster evaporation.
Pour into sterilized jars leaving 1/4? headspace and heat-process the jars in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes.
Makes about 4 – 1/4 pint / 125 mL jars.
*How to Test for Set
Before setting my jars to sterilize, I always place 3 or 4 small saucers in the freezer. Towards the end of cooking the jam, when it looks like it may be ready or it has reached 220°F, I remove a saucer from the freezer and plop a small blob of jam onto it. The plate then goes back into the freezer for a few minutes so that the jam can cool. The jam is ready when it forms a bit of a gel and doesn’t run off the plate. I often run my finger through and taste it to be sure. I keep cooking if it is still runny and do a plate test every few minutes or so until I am sure.
Do not turn off the heat until you are sure the jam is done.
[UPDATE: I have since made this jam with serviceberries from a different tree.These berries were not as juicy and plump as the first batch. If yours are like these I suggest adding about 1/4 to a 1/2 cup of water when cooking the berries. Wait until the berries are soft before adding sugar.]
I have a few service berries I planted deliberately for berries, but I cannot beat the birds. They eat them before they are even ripe! I will need to net them next year if I plan to try this jam.
That is usually the case here, but berries seem to be more abundant this year so they are staying on the trees. I think the birds are getting their fill of a wider range.
I’ve also noticed a bummer crop of serviceberries in Toronto this year. Really cold winter = good crop?
There is a corporate centre at Bloor & Islington with a bunch planted outside, I stop by at lunch time and eat handfuls of them, while everyone else just sits and stares.
It’s odd, but seems to be the case for a bunch of different berries. I am doing really well foraging this summer. It’s amazing how many people don’t know about these delicious berries!
Love serviceberries! Summer foraging is so rewarding. I like the jam pot pic. Sounds like a nice staycation – a day out foraging is one of my favorite activities. I gather serviceberries, huckleberries, chokecherries whenever they are abundant, as well as wild herbs (mint, monarda), greens, and dye plants (tansy, goldenrod, oak leaves, willow). Thanks for the great post.
We call them Saskatoons or juneberries here in Alberta. There are a few commercial orchards locally, but I have my secret wild spot – last year I had to tip toe around a giant wasp’s nest the size of a basketball. I really like the unique flavour of serviceberries – they have sort of pear/almond notes as well. Not ready for a couple more weeks here, I usually try to get enough for a pie, a batch of jam, and some in the freezer for muffins, cobblers, and pancakes in the winter.
I find them a touch seedy so I run the berries through a food mill before making jam, still thick and pulpy. Amazing flavour, nothing better on a batch of fresh biscuits.
Another garden blogger – 66 Square Feet even forages for them in New York City.
Cheers,
Jake
Thanks for pointing out the almond notes. It can be strong or mild, depending on the variety. I don’t mind the seeds in jam because I’m not eating a large quantity at one time. I’m too lazy to mill them out!
Yay – thank you for this! I just realized this year that my work in North York has about a half dozen serviceberry trees in our back parking lot so I’ve been out there almost every day, filling up a large mason jar or two! I keep getting stopped by coworkers asking ‘Are you sure you can eat those?’. Have gotten a few brave souls to try them, and most people like them! They just can’t believe we have something like them growing so abundantly so close to home.
I also mixed them with some mulberries into a jam and berry crisp this year – highly recommend that combo.
Oh my goodness I so wish I had those where I live!