Choke cherries, beloved of the sky.
And in my kitchen!
Lots of choke cherries!
What a lovely meditation they are for the fingers. And the eye, too…
And the mind. 
As a human, I’m charmed by the chance to look up to sea the earth ripening in the place of the stars. Or is it the stars falling?
Or the stars, caught?
And embraced? Look at the dark inside them, just waiting to come out and be born as light.
You see, some days are days for, well, this:
Mmmm.
Categories: food culture, Indigenous Farming, Nature Photography
Okanagan Okanogan 
What are you making with the choke cherries. I always thought they were too sour to make jam. Must take a lot of sugar??
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They aren’t all that sour, actually. It’s just that they have lots of tannins on top of the sugar. But, that makes them into exquisite jelly. Last year I followed the rules, and it was quite sweet, but so delicious. This year I am going to go lighter on the sugar. I used some of the juice as a marinade for some chicken yesterday. It made it pink! And the tannins added some nice dryness, which i complemented with some coriander, just a titch of tarragon, and a little red chill. Then I stirred it all up with fresh nectarines and some pistachios. It was colourful and pretty fine, but I’d ease up on the coriander and add something very sharp next time, to cut straight through the nectarines. The cherries were too sweet to do so. Some sour cherry vinegar might do the trick!
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Looks so good! Choke Cherry jelly is my favorite, and syrup too!
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