40 Nebraskaland • June 2023
of Aurora in mid-August. If the plums
are ripe, I return with a bucket.
Unfortunately, the early-blooming
fl owers are sometimes nipped by frost
and produce no fruit. So in a good plum
year, I stock away as many preserves
as possible, stopping only when my
wife begins to question my sanity.
I spread the plums on newspapers
in our garage or porch for a few days
until all are fully ripe — soft to the
touch and juicy. I love eating them
fresh, popping one into my mouth
and biting through the skin to release
the sweet pulp before spitting out the
pit and rather tart skin. Unlike me,
Native children likely did not waste
the nutritious skin. My favorite use
for plums is to make jam or syrup,
which are great on buttery toast or as
a topping on cottage cheese, yogurt,
ice cream or pancakes. You can also cut
the plums in half, remove the pit and
made a wonderful wild plum pie.
Chokecherry (P. virginiana) is also
a tall, thicket-forming shrub that is
common statewide and grows in the
same habitats as the wild plum. The
fl owers, which hang in distinguishing,
drooping clusters, appear in mid-
April through May, and the pea-sized
cherries ripen from red to blackish-
purple in June and July. In many years,
the bushes are loaded with fruit that
can be picked by the gallon. A warning:
Picking the small cherries can be
rather tedious work. This is where
children can come in handy.
By harvesting the cherries, you will
be repeating an ancient tradition of
Scott Wessel's tasty dried chokecherry
patties.
The aptly-named chokecherries are bitter when eaten fresh, but when sweetened with sugar, make wonderful jam,
jelly and sauces.
