Where to Buy Chokecherry Jelly and Syrup in Montana

Chokecherries are the Montana fruit nobody puts on a poster. Huckleberry gets the attention and the price, while chokecherries grow along every draw, fence line, and coulee in the state and mostly go to birds.

Anyone who grew up here has a grandmother who made jelly from them. Almost nobody sells what comes out of them, which is why people end up searching for where to buy chokecherry jelly instead of just picking some up.

What a Chokecherry Is

It is a small dark stone fruit, closer to a wild plum than a cherry despite the name it carries, growing on shrubs and small trees across the northern plains and mountain west.

The name is the warning. Eat one raw and your mouth puckers hard enough that the word explains itself. They are intensely astringent fresh, which is why every traditional use involves cooking them with sugar.

One thing worth saying plainly. Chokecherry pits contain cyanogenic compounds, as do the pits of cherries, apricots, and peaches. Nobody should crush or eat the pits. Every product we sell is made from the fruit with the pits removed, so this matters only if you are picking and processing them yourself.

What They Taste Like Once Cooked

Cooking and sugar turn the astringency into something deep and wine-like, closer to a dark plum than a sweet cherry, with a tartness that stays at the back.

That depth is why chokecherry jelly beats most commercial grape jelly. It tastes like a specific fruit rather than like sweetness.

On toast it is straightforward. The better use is next to meat, where it does what cranberry does at a holiday table but with more spine. Try it with pork, venison, or a sharp cheese.

The Syrup, Which Is Underused

Most people put chokecherry syrup on pancakes and stop there, and it belongs on pancakes.

It is also the more versatile of the two products. Over vanilla ice cream, stirred into sparkling water, brushed on ribs in the last minutes of cooking, or in a cocktail where you would otherwise use grenadine and regret it.

If you want both, we carry them together as a set, which costs less than buying them separately and solves the gift problem in one move.

Chokecherry Tea

The tea is the one people do not expect. It brews darker and more tannic than a fruit tea usually does, which suits the fruit, and it holds up iced better than most.

It also travels well as a gift, since a tin weighs nothing and does not break.

If You Want to Pick Your Own

They ripen in late summer across most of Montana, turning from red to nearly black. Ripe is when they are dark and give slightly, and picking early gives you astringency that no amount of sugar will fix.

Ask permission on private land, take the fruit and not the branches, and leave some for the birds that depend on them. Then plan on cooking, straining out the pits, and adding more sugar than feels reasonable.

Or skip all of that and buy a jar, which is what most people who have done it once decide to do.

Questions We Get

Where can I buy chokecherry jelly?
We stock it in Belgrade and ship throughout the United States.

Are chokecherries safe to eat?
The cooked fruit is. The pits contain cyanogenic compounds, like cherry and apricot pits, so do not crush or eat them. Our products are made from the fruit with pits removed.

What do chokecherries taste like?
Raw, intensely astringent. Cooked with sugar, deep and wine-like, closer to a dark plum than a sweet cherry.

When do chokecherries ripen in Montana?
Late summer, when they turn from red to nearly black.

What is the difference between the jelly and the syrup?
The jelly is set and belongs on toast or beside meat. The syrup pours, and works on pancakes, ice cream, in drinks, or as a glaze.