Canning is a skill that has nearly faded out of reckoning, but it is a useful and satisfying skill to have. And nothing beats homemade jams and jellies! Chokecherries have produced abundantly and early this year, and can be found growing all over the Black Hills. We picked and processed pounds and pounds of berries from our bountiful chokecherry harvest, and turned them into jelly, using Grandma’s recipe (slightly modified), which made it even more fun!
Grandma’s Chokecherry Jelly
1 pound of ripe fruit or 4-5 cups of berries (should yield 3 cups juice)
1/2 c. lemon juice
1 package powdered pectin
4 1/2 c. white sugar
Juice extraction: Put 1 pound of ripe fruit (4-5 cups of berries) in a large pot and cover with water. Simmer for 15 minutes, crushing the berries as they soften. Don’t crush the pits, since they are toxic. Strain fruit and water through a colander, jelly bag, or cheesecloth, saving the juice and setting the pulp aside. Put pulp in a pot and again add water to cover. Simmer again and strain again. Discard pulp. (For every 4-5 cups of berries, you should get at least 3 cups of juice. If necessary, use fruit pulp and water once more to get to the necessary 3 cups of juice. )
Jelly: Add 1/2 cup lemon juice to 3 cups chokecherry juice. Stir in 1 package of powdered pectin. Stir well. Let the juice mixture come to a rolling boil, stirring constantly. Once it boils, stir in the 4 1/2 cups of sugar, stirring constantly. Bring to a rolling boil. Be careful, particularly if you have an electric stove! The juice and sugar can boil over fast! For this part of the process, an extra pair of hands is helpful – One pair to add sugar and stir, and another pair with hot pads, ready to take the pot off the stove if it begins to boil up. Let boil for 2 minutes, stirring constantly to keep it from scorching.
Skim the foam off the top. The skimmings are edible, though not can-able! Put jelly in sterilized jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. 
Chokecherry jelly has become my favorite – I’ll be saving a jar back to enter in the county fair in a few weeks!
Song Dog Journal 
Every batch of my choke cherry set up beautifully! Thank you for sharing your recipe as I was ready to give up any more attempts trying to make jelly. Thank you again,Tami
LikeLike
I’m so glad the chokecherry jelly turned out for you! It is one of my favorites. I make crockpot Greek yogurt, and I love to put a dollop of chokecherry jelly in a bowl of it!
LikeLike
I just made my first batch of choke cherry jelly using your family recipe! I must say it may be the prettiest jelly I have put up! We have an abundant harvest this year! The wild plumbs are going to be ready any day and I am having so much fun getting my Christmas gifts started! I love that your site isn t cluttered with a ton of adds! Thank you for sharing your gifts with us! Our Black Hills truly are a blessed place to live! Blessings to you and yours!
LikeLike
Thanks so much for this comment! What fun – I’m glad you liked the recipe! It is a family favorite, for sure. I made so much of it two years ago (when I published the recipe, actually) that I haven’t made any chokecherry jelly since! Probably next year will be chokecherry year for me again. 🙂
Our Hills are a wonderful place to live!
LikeLike
I really enjoyed reading your article on making chokecherry jam. Making jams and jellies is definitely a skill I want to learn!
LikeLike
You know, I find it rather therapeutic. 🙂 I only learned last summer, as far as being able to do it independently start to finish. Not a difficult skill to learn, but it can be intimidating at first. I’ll be posting a few more articles soon with recipes for crabapple syrup, crabapple jelly, plum jam, and apple butter!! Maybe I’ll do a run down on the canning process as well! Thanks for reading!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Looking forward to the applebutter! It’s a favorite on our homestead!
LikeLike
My Mom made so many jars of choke jerry jelly.
LikeLike
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your pictures and description of the process of making chokecherry jelly! Especially heart warming to know you and your sisters are learning how to make the delicacy! I’ve canned a lot in my younger years and remember the joy of completing the process of preparing, canning and seeing the jars stored for future use of the family. Blessing to your mother for passing on these learned skills to you girls.
LikeLike