How to Harvest Serviceberries

The serviceberry bush is more than just a flowering ornamental shrub, it also provides edible berries. The berries look and taste similar to blueberries, and they also make a suitable substitution in any recipe calling for blueberries. The fruit adds a mildly sweet flavor to jellies, pies, and juices, and is also suitable for table use as a fresh berry. The berries begin to mature in midsummer, approximately six weeks after the flower cycle ends.

Bowl
Ladle
Colander

Instructions

- 1
  Harvest the berries once they change from pink to purple or deep red. Light-colored berries aren't fully matured.
- 2
  Hold a bowl beneath a bunch of ripe berries. Pull the bunch of berries through the open fingers of your other hand, raking the ripe berries from the bush and into the bowl.
- 3
  Fill the bowl with cold water once you finish harvesting. Swirl the water and berries around the bowl two or three times so any stems or shriveled berries float to the surface of the water.
- 4
  Skim the stems and plant debris from the surface of the water with a ladle. Drain the water from the cleaned berries in a colander.

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