26 minutes ago, TicTac said:Someone told me choke cherries were edible, many around here - tried some, but oh man are they astringent / tannic - no clue how people eat those.
You need to get them when they're dead-ripe, past purple and almost black. They'll still be tannic, but sweet enough to balance it out. Even at that stage they're not to everyone's taste (as, indeed, is the case with big red wines), and there's a lot of variation from one tree to another. On our favorite walk in the old neighbourhood we'd pass hundreds of chokecherries, but a few trees were much better eating.
They do make very nice not-too-sweet jams and jellies, and surprisingly good wine.
ETA: There's a lookalike which has its berries spaced out a little further on individual stems, as opposed to chokecherries which tend to hang in clusters. Those are seriously bitter/astringent, though apparently some people still make jam out of 'em.
