It’s Saskatoon Serviceberry Season!

For about another couple of weeks in the Rockies from Colorado to Canada it’s Saskatoon season. Saskatoons are a type of Serviceberry, and the namesake of the town of the same name in Saskatchewan, that range from Colorado on the southern end of it’s range to deep into Canada, as far west as Alaska and if you’re in the Dakotas you’re in luck — you’re deep in the range for some of the tastiest wild berries I’ve ever had!

They’re adaptable to a variety of different soil types but I’ve often found them on the side of hills adjacent to creeks. They grow in tall spindly looking plants with circular leaves and are actually in the same family as apples. The berries resemble blueberries, if a little smaller than your grocery store variety but have a slightly nutty and sweet taste. As a reminder, always have a positive identification of a wild plant before consuming it.

Once you’re on a patch of Saskatoon Serviceberries mark them on your GPS. You’ll want to come back year after year. I purchased a berry picker off of Amazon after picking about 4 cups last year, I was greedy and wanted more this season. With proper technique you ought to be able to pick a gallon or so every 45 minutes in a thick patch with a berry picker! Just leave some for the birds and bears.

Now, what to do with all of those berries? They’re exceedingly versatile and happen to coincide with my scouting missions into the elk woods. This year I got a little creative with them. Let’s look into some of the delicious uses of the berry, shall we?

Palisade Peach and Serviceberry Cobbler

I just can’t help myself, Palisade Peach and Saskatoon Serviceberry season coincide in the late summer in Colorado every year. It’s a Western Slope festival of flavors that just need to be put into a pie or cobbler. Some nights I just don’t have the patience for pie, so this simple cobbler recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch is my go to.

I modify the recipe a little bit, using about 4-5 ripe palisade peaches and a cup of Serviceberries. Upping the spice quotient I’ll also add 2tsp of Cinnamon and 1tsp of clove to the batter. It’ll look a little brown but it’ll have a pleasing holiday taste I really enjoy. Make the recipe a couple times as is, but then tinker with your spices. Ginger, Allspice, Cloves, and Cinnamon all work very well with the Serviceberry and Peach.

Saskatoon “Capers”

Harvesting the Serviceberries with a berry picker leads to a fair amount of immature berries being harvested that otherwise wouldn’t be picked by hand. Not being one to waste an opportunity for a good food experiment I decided to keep them when I was high-grading the plump berries for other projects such as freezing or going into jam.

The small, tart berries really won’t hurt anything if left in the main pile, but I felt there was an opportunity for something a little different this year. One of my wife’s favorite recipes for blueberries is a pickled blueberry that uses vinegar, cloves, cinnamon, and brown sugar to produce a sweet-savory pickle that’s delightful on french toast, pancakes, or even ice cream.

I figured if I toyed with the recipe a little bit I might just have a perfect garnish for my next wild game meal. I’ve got a little bit of backstrap left over from my Pennsylvania white tail that seems like it would be just perfect for this. So I got to playing, and here’s what I came up with.

Yield: 1 Pint Jelly Jar of Serviceberry Capers

Approximately 1 cup unripe Serviceberries
1 cup of Apple Cider Vinegar
1/3 cup Red Wine Vinegar (use high quality red wine vinegar, some taste very astringent)
4-5 whole cloves
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt

Heat the vinegar to a low simmer and add in salt and sugar. Stir until fully dissolved. Add cloves, remain on a simmer for 5 more minute to reduce over medium heat. Pour into hot mason jar and cap finger tight.

In my case I also processed in a boiling water bath for 14 minutes (10 for an elevation of 5000ft or less). However the specific PH of this recipe wasn’t tested, but vinegar was not cut with water — so I cannot guarantee shelf stability. This recipe works equally well for a “quick pickle” with maximum flavor developing in about a week in the fridge before using.

The pickled unripe serviceberries paired well with some backstrap, and will likely pair just as well with pork — or something a little wilder such as mountain lion or bear. After all, something I learned early on in wild game cookery — if it eats it, or eats something that eats it, it’ll likely go well with the meat.

Serviceberry a la Mode

The versatile Serviceberry lends itself well to ice cream, whether as a topping or frozen right in. We churn a lot of our own ice cream in our house, and found that Melissa Clark’s ice cream base in the New York Times to be a very good starting point. We substitute 2% for whole milk because it’s often what we have in the house, and add about a tablespoon of vanilla extract to the base when making vanilla ice cream. If you leave out the vanilla you have what people call “Sweet Cream” ice cream.

From there we usually just top it with some of my jam that was too much for canning. What, you don’t save the rest of your jam for immediate use? I use a recipe from the old Atco Blue Flame cookbook that The Kitchen Magpie resurrected. It’s simple to make and is as delicious on a spoon as it it a la mode.

If you begin churning your ice cream base, and then wait about 10 minutes for the cream to begin thickening you can then add some jam and a shot of your Serviceberry simple syrup (see below) into it. This gives the ice cream a pleasing light pink hue and a fantastic flavor.

Freeze for a few hours or overnight depending on how you like the consistency of your ice cream and you have a flavor you’ll never find in the supermarket.

Serviceberry Simple Syrup

How about a stiff drink after all of that work you just put in? We made a Saskatoon Serviceberry simple syrup in order to make the best use of the color.