My new all time favorite fruit is the Kousa Dogwood, they're planted in neighborhoods all around me and the fruit is so good! It taste similar to a pumpkin pie with extra cinnamon, although I have heard there is large variance in taste from tree to tree...which I wouldn't know as i hit the same tree continuously
Hey! I just subscribed to your channel. I am also in the Okanagan, in Salmon Arm! I’m looking up about chokecherries because my son and I just foraged some to go into our elderberry syrup.
I read that the wild berries flavors will change plant to plant, and that full sun makes the best tasting. I read a few places that if you dry the fruit whole it gets rid of the cyanide and then you grind it whole into flour for recipes as needed. Some people say not to try it. That was how old-timers used to use them though. They also preserved them in alcohol. I am going to try drying them this year because somebody snagged me saying dried and then powered the wild cherries (choke and black) it makes a chocolate flavored drink. I always try everything said to taste of chocolate. I have yet to come across something that really does, just tried chicory root, chocolate mint plant, and Linden berry and flower mashed so far. I am suspicious of it tasting chocolate, but I will dry and then mash both whole fruit and pitted, so have the cherry/almond flavor and plain cherry flavor. I pick and preserve food every year, my grandpa used to do that with me when I was a kid, but the one thing I can count on using is teas. The frozen berries my mom will turn into pies when she visits me for Thanksgiving and Christmas and I have usually made jellies which she takes back with her. I love picking berries, not a fan of eating them.
Beautiful video~I love your manner. I think I have these outside and I am gonna' go see about that.... They are in the back yard of my guest house and the bear here on the western slope of Colorado are coming down for food. I don't want to encourage the bear into my back yard. They are already enjoying the apples on the ground at my neighbors'. Sooooo...I am sending my boys to harvest my pears today too! Thank you!
Those are definitely picked a bit early...best if near black and even better if they have gone through a frost. Easy way to spot berries you can eat is if they have the crown petals at their base where the flower used to be. Blueberries are one of the more obvious ones of this group.
Why are my multitrunk Canadian chokecherries not fertile? Are they ornamental only? They don't get enough berries? The leaves turn purple in summer. Thank you.
That's a good question. Is it a tree you have in your yard? There are lots of potential reasons why a tree might not produce fruit. I really like this channel, and I think this video could be helpful. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4pyRlaA5u4E.html
Interesting. I grew up on that side of Okanagan lake - is that just North of Pixie Beach on Carrs Landing road? I think many decades ago they use to have a Boy Scout camp down below ... if I am thinking of the right place.
@@OkanaganGardenerandForager Beautiful area - I do miss it from time to time; especially now in this heat - used to just run down to the lake every day.
there are two kinds of chokecherries, the red and the black. I pick them every year. Like the black colored ones for taste.Got the red ones in front of house and big black ones in the back.Don't have far to go and pick. Us natives pick them every summer.
@@OkanaganGardenerandForager very neat. My sister and I were trying to figure out what it was so I did an image shot and boom there was my answer. We live near the suwannee river in North Florida. The flora never stops amazing me.
@@OkanaganGardenerandForager you're probably right. Our redbuds have already bloomed. Now the dogwoods, florabundas, wisteria and azaleas are in full bloom not to mention all the wild flowers.
Boy... Id like to have one near the corner of my home in northern ohio but Im not a big fan of the cherries. I guess I would plant that more as a ornamental tree then anything else. They don't make a variety that don't produce many cherries do they?
I have been eating chokecherry since I was a kid! I wash them up in a cup of water then salt them! I swallow the pit and all and I haven’t died from it yet, or taken sick in anyway from it!
@@OkanaganGardenerandForager yes, the table salt is for flavor! I chew up the cherries and swallow the stones whole. No problems whatsoever! Many people in Ontario eat them this way, not just me...lol!
@@OkanaganGardenerandForager lol..You’re welcome.. I hope you like them! But a lot of us folks in Ontario eat them this way, not just me! When my sister was in the nursing home she would always ask me to bring her some salted chokecherries, when they were in season! I like to let them get really dark first. When you put them in a cup or a plastic glass you can just pour them into your mouth! A big mouth full at a time!
@@OkanaganGardenerandForager I’m really not sure just a random thought :) I have a milion of them scattered everywhere in my village so I assumed they are ate round and pooped by a lot of birds 🤭
