I have a tendency to miss some berries during foraging season. Black caps (Rubus occidentalis) especially I love, but never seem to take the time to pick enough. This year I found a great new patch though, so I made sure to try a few new things that weren’t jam or jelly. Wild berry cassis…
Aronia / Chokeberry
Aronia or Chokeberry
Chokeberries are a relative of rowanberries and have an astringent mouthfeel to them. If you're new to cooking with this fruit, try my aronia preserves or chokeberry vinaigrette first.
Sweet and Sour Wild Cherry, Berry or Grape Syrup
Sweet and sour syrup, or gastrique as it’s known among chefs, is a little-known cousin to your typical wild fruit preserves that is one of my favorite to keep on hand all year round. It’s a simple, easy way to put up your wild fruit, and i’ve especially designed this one to work for fruits…
Fruit Scrap Vinegar
If you harvest your own fruit–any kind of fruit–you know how many leftover skins, seeds, pits, cooked stuff, raw stuff, and all kinds of other things are leftover from processing. So much scrap, from so much good fruit. If you’re anything like me, you may have wondered if there’s anything you can do with it….
Wild Grape, Aronia, or Elderberry BBQ (Spicy!)
I love gathering fruit, especially wild fruit I can extract juice from like wild grapes, aronia berries, and elderberries. After the hustle and bustle of harvesting, when it comes time to use up what I’ve put away, I know I’ll make a few jellies and other preserves, but there’s always a part of me that…
Simple Chokeberry / Aronia Preserves or Jam
Since the skin and flesh of chokeberries / Aronia melanocarpa are more tannic than other berries, they’re usually just processed into juice or jelly, and most of the time that’s how you’ll see them sold commercially, or online. If you haven’t ever looked, go look at some products, especially the price tag (30$/12oz of juice!)…
Sweet and Sour Chokeberry or Elderberry Syrup
Lately the chokeberries / aronia berries have been floating around the brunch menu, but I often like to have my pastry chef use them on different desserts, they might be mixed together with other fruits like apples, other berries, really whatever we have on hand that will make a good partner. The berries are great…