We used up the last bit of homemade peach elderberry preserves the other day and when we checked the pantry we found we were completely out jam in general! Fortunately, our wild black cherry trees are bearing delicious organic wild berries for us and our feathered friends to enjoy. So, we set to the work of harvesting with the hopes of filling our pails with these delicious treats.
Well, organic wild black cherries are pretty small, so we didn’t completely fill our pails, but we ended up with more than a gallon of berries that we’ll be turning into our first batch of delicious jam for this season.
We were fortunate to find
several Prunus serotina (wild black cherry) already growing on our Independence Missouri farm. Since then we’ve planted dozens more along the fence rows. Wild black cherries are an excellent native tree you can plant that will provide shade, edibles and food for dozens of species of wild birds. If you want to plant this Missouri native on your property you can find them very reasonably priced at the Missouri Department of Conservation.
