A Berry Good Summer So Far:)

It's berry time again. I had been a little worried that our long trip away this summer would have us missing the berry season all together.....but as luck would have it, we seem to have hit it just right. And we are just about out of Chokecherry syrup, which we just used the last of, for Ike's breakfast above. Huckleberries, Pin cherries, Chokecherries, Blueberries and Saskatoons are all coming into season. After a few days of picking and a few experiments we have some Saskatoon syrup and some unintentional Huckleberry Jelly canned up for the coming year. Don't you just love canning season?

I'm going to try a new syrup recipe this year for Apricot syrup as soon as I catch them on sale.....and I'm on the look out now for pickling cucumbers to make some dill pickles. After eating nearly two whole jars of mom's salt water dills......I think I may need to make some of my own. In any event.....should you be interested in making your own fruit syrup for pancakes this year, here are a few that I have tried and also the Apricot one that I'm about to try too. All of these recipe work equally well with frozen fruit so you need not stress over picking and processing in a short time space. I am short of freezer space right now so am trying to process them so as to not take up any freezer space.

Chokecherry Syrup

8 cups ripe chokecherries, stemmed and unpitted
1/2 cup water
1/2 box of pectin crystals
4 cups sugar

Place the chokecherries in a large saucepan with the water and mash well. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Strain mixture through a jelly bag and measure juice

Add about 4 cups of the strained juice into a saucepan, add the pectin crystals and mix well. Bring to a boil stirring frequently. Stir in the sugar and boil hard for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
Skim away any foam from the surface and pour into hot sterilized jars. Store in the refrigerator.

I canned mine in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes instead of keeping it in the fridge.


And my Saskatoon syrup is just about ready to come out now:)


Saskatoon (Service Berry or June Berry) Syrup

8 cups Saskatoon berries, cleaned
3/4 cup water


For each cup of berry juice,

1 cup berry juice
1 1/2 cups sugar

Mash berries and water in a large saucepan and simmer for 2 minutes. Transfer berries to a jelly bag and strain and squeeze bag to recover the most juice.
For each cup of berry juice add 1 1/2 cups sugar and heat in a large sauce pan bringing to a rolling boil. Boil for only 1 minute. (longer may result in syrup jelling) Transfer into clean hot canning jars and seal. Process in hot water bath 10 minutes.
*Recipe instructions included a thicker recipe by substituting the 1 1/2 cups sugar with 1 1/4 cups sugar plus 1/4 cup light corn syrup plus 1 tbsp lemon juice. I found the syrup quite thick with the original recipe as above. I imagine that this recipe would work for blueberries as well!

Apricot Syrup

2 lbs (1kg) ripe apricots, pitted and chopped
1 cup water

4 cups sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp corn syrup

Puree the apricots with the water in two batches in a blender. Turn into a large saucepan.

Add sugar, lemon juice and corn syrup. Stir over meduim-high heat until sugar dissolves and it comes to a boil. Boil and stir for 5 minutes. Skim away any foam from the surface. Pour into hot sterilized jars to within 1/4 inch (6mm) headspace. Seal. Makes 6 cups of syrup.
*(From 'Company's Coming Preserves' a very popular Canadian cooking series)
edit August 8/09.......Just loved this Apricot syrup recipe, it is very well flavoured and perhaps not quite as sugary sweet as the berry syrups. Very much like the apricot syrup they serve at IHOP type pancake places.