Amelanchier alnifolia

Amelanchier alnifolia

Serviceberries grow on a small tree. In early spring it is recognizable from the white flowers with five narrow petals which soon fall away, but most of the year the most distinctive feature is the leaf which is only toothed on the half toward the tip; the teeth usually smooth out lower down, and the base of the leaf has a smooth edge.

The berries themselves are red and firm when not yet ripe, and become dark purple and soft when they are ripe. The inner flesh is whitish and there are a few dark seeds, but the seeds are not large or hard enough to bother you much when eating them. The berries have a very pleasant, slightly sweet flavor. They can almost be called juicy, but it is more like a berry full of apple sauce in consistency and they taste like apple sauce with a bit of grape flavor mixed in. My mouth was somewhat dry after eating them, so they may have a slightly astringent property, which I didn't notice at all while eating them.

When I pick a bunch of these, I can keep them in the fridge for a few weeks, and use them in the same way I would use blueberries.

When I pick a gallon or more, which is not hard to do if you find an area with lots of trees, there are a variety of ways to preserve them. They make a very good jam if you simply blend them up with a food processor. They have a lot of pectin, and are already jelled up when you remove the mass from the foot processor. But it doesn't hurt to add a small amount of sugar and water, and boil them for a few minutes to make them more preservable. I used about 2 cups of berries, 1/4 cup of water, and 3 tablespoons of sugar, and boiled for 5-10 minutes, to get a very good flavored jam. For long term storage, you might want to add a little lemon juice for acidity and process the jars in a boiling water bath to make sure all the germs are dead.

Another good way to preserve serviceberries is as fruit leather. You can simply crush them and spread them on a fruit drying sheet. You can also use the jam recipe above, and spread that on the fruit drying sheet. The extra sugar-water and boiling makes it more pliable, so the result was a smoother leather without and breaks. Also, I thought the fruit lost some of its sweetness while drying, so I liked restoring that with a little sugar. The plain fruit leather developed a lot of cracks from shrinkage while drying, but some of my family preferred its crunchier texture over the jam-style leather. You may want to try both methods to see which you prefer.