Everything you wanted to know about chokecherries and more. From collecting to processing to consumption. How to make a living from this tart wild edible.

I cover fruit leather, jam, juice and raw consumption. I go over toxicity and how to remedy the cyanogeic glycoside present in the seeds.

Research

a) CYANOGENIC GLYCOSIDES IN CASSAVA AND BAMBOO SHOOTS

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b) TRADITIONAL PLANT FOODS OF CANADIAN INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

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Symptoms of cyanide intoxication include rapid respiration, drop in blood pressure, rapid pulse, dizziness, headache, stomach pains, vomiting, diarrhoea, mental confusion, twitching and convulsions. In extreme cases, it may even result in death.

While much negative can be said about the chokecherry, they shouldn't be ignored. Records agree that Native American tribes used and collected chokecherries in great abundance. Animals also readily consume chokecherries including bears, racoons, chipmunks and birds. For many Native Americans, chokecherries was highly sought, and when available, was in fact, the most important fruit in their diet.

Chokecherries were eaten by Iroquois, Ojibwa, Algonquin and Cree, among many others. They were prepared many different ways. The Iroquois made soup from chokecherries and powdered them mixed them into dried meat. The Ojibwa mashed them and dried them into cakes. Others added them to meat stew and mixed them with grease or fish eggs or pounded them together with fish heads or fish tails or fish meat. Chokecherries were a staple food for many tribes. They were so important, that tribes like the Cree often planted the seeds around their homes.

While they contain a huge amount of calories at 150 per 100 grams, they unfortunately can not be eaten easily in their raw native form - not especially in enough quantity to satiate a hungry survivalist.

Not all is lost with the chokecherry, however, for it can, with the help of certain processing, be made totally edible and almost enjoyable. Long before our modern times, chokecherries were primarily eaten as a dried staple in the Native diet. In fact, no other berry was as important to these groups and eaten in comparable quantity as the chokecherry.

For chokecherries, it may be that finding just the right bush to harvest from - with the right ripeness - is the real trick. Then again, it is very likely that chokecherries are something that can only be used sparingly, added to pemmican, mixed in with other sweater berries, or eaten as a light snack, rather than as a complete meal replacement. Regardless, chokecherries are both plentiful and energy dense, so they can not be ignored in wilderness living.

Chokecherry
Prunus virginiana
Other common names: Choke Cherry, Eastern Chokecherry, Red Choke Cherry, Red Chokecherry

Family: Rose Family (Rosaceae)

Group: Cherries

Distinctive features: Shrub

Similar species:
• Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) - a tree.
• Pin Cherry (Prunus pensylvanica) - a tree.

Flowers: Spring; White; 5 parts (petals)

Leaves: Alternate, Simple, Toothed; Alternate, simple.

Height: 8 m (26 ft)

Fruit/Seeds: Black fruit.

Habitat: Fields and Open Areas; Open areas.

Uses: Edible fruits, although they are VERY tart!

Edible: Edible but extremely tart, hence the name!

Native/Non-native: Native

Status: Common.

Notes: The fruits are edible, although very sour - hence the shrub's name.

Origin and Meaning of Names:

Scientific Name: virginiana: of Virginia, Virginian
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