Serviceberries ripening on the bush in late June.
Amelanchier species
saskatoon berry, juneberry
EDIBLE berries
With its perfectly balanced, sweet fruit, serviceberry is a delightful June find. Its berries are easy to gather and abundant, and they make delicious pies and jams—that is, if any make it home without being eaten. Quite possibly, this is one of my summer favorites.
Serviceberry is a small, fruiting, deciduous shrub or small tree that grows to a height of 20 feet. Its bark is smooth gray with dark vertical furrows. The leaves are oval, serrated, smooth or slightly hairy, and alternate along the stem. The white, five-petaled flowers bloom in early spring, and dark purple fruit in racemes ripens in midsummer. Each fruit has a small crown at the base, similar to an apple or pear.
Serviceberry is found in the wild along hedgerows and in open woodlands. It is a common landscape plant whose fruits usually go unnoticed. The berries ripen in mid- to late June.
Serviceberries ripening on the bush in late June.
Harvest when the crop on the tree is mostly ripe and dark red, leaving the green fruit for later harvests over subsequent weeks. Bring baskets and gather by hand in the morning on a clear, dry day. A few pints can be easily gathered in a half hour or so. Before preserving, make sure the fruit is dry and clean of debris.
Serviceberry makes a nice jam, fruit leather, and, of course, pie. If the harvest is small, the berries can be mixed with other seasonal foraged fruits like blackberry, blueberry, or raspberry for baking, ice cream, cordials, and jams.
The fruit, with its mild flavor like a cross between a cherry and a blueberry, is a lovely complement to fresh farm cheese, yogurt, or ice cream. Like the huckleberry, serviceberries are excellent in milkshakes. Herbs like basil or lemon verbena pair well with serviceberry. It can also be combined in simple syrup for cocktails with a tequila or vodka, or simply to flavor a refreshing homemade soda.
Serviceberry is a widely distributed plant that is also common in the landscape industry. Because of its appealing fruits, it is also becoming more popular as an early summer crop on farms in the northern areas of the Midwest. Harvesting the fruit will do little to impact the plant’s future harvest or distribution across the Midwest. It propagates easily by cuttings and bare-root transplants, and it tolerates a variety of temperatures and soil conditions. Serviceberry makes for an excellent edible plant addition to a permaculture landscape design.
