Sacramento Digs Gardening Article
Your resource for Sacramento-area gardening news, tips and events

Articles Recipe Index Keyword Index Calendar Twitter Facebook Instagram About Us Contact Us

This fruity syrup makes most of late-season harvest

Recipe: Very berry syrup mixes strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and more

Sacramento Digs Gardening
BY Debbie Arrington PUBLISHED SEP 8, 2024

A mix of berries, plus a few other random summer fruits, go into the fruit syrup. Debbie Arrington

Late summer fruit can seem like a collection of leftovers – the last of the berries (but not enough to make jam) and (often overripe) plums, pluots or peaches. What to do with these odds and ends past their prime?

Straining syrup over a bowl — Strain the fruit juice after the first simmer.

Mix them together into a fruity syrup that’s a sure hit on pancakes, French toast or other breakfast favorites. (Debbie's sour cream blueberry pancake recipe can be found here. ) It’s wonderful drizzled over vanilla ice cream or plain cheesecake, too.

Berries tend to dominate this syrup’s profile in both flavor and color – that’s why it’s “Very Berry” and not just “miscellaneous mixed fruit.” For this batch, I used equal amounts of strawberries and blueberries plus the last of our wild blackberries and two overripe pluots. Like blending wine varietals, that mix of fruit creates a syrup that’s deep in flavor as well as color.

Very berry syrup

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

2 cups mixed berries and/or fruit (blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, plums, pluots, peaches, etc.)

1 lemon or lime

1 cup water plus more if needed

1-1/2 cups sugar

Syrup with pancakes — The berry syrup is great with Debbie's pancakes.

Instructions:

Prepare fruit. Hull strawberries and roughly chop. Remove pits from stone fruit if using.

In a heavy 2-quart saucepot, place prepared fruit. Squeeze juice of lemon or lime over fruit; gently toss. Add 1 cup water. Over medium-high heat, bring to boil, then reduce heat. Simmer fruit until very soft, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Strain the juice using a jelly bag, fine sieve or two layers of cheesecloth. Measure juice; it will be about 1-1/2 cups. (Add a little water if needed.)

Return juice to saucepan. Add sugar, stir to dissolve. Bring mixture to boil. Boil for 2 minutes, stirring often.

Remove from heat and let cool slightly. Transfer to jar or bottle. Store covered tightly in refrigerator.

Comments

0 comments have been posted.

RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipe recipes berries strawberries blueberries blackberries fruit sauce breakfast cooking produce management Sacramento gardening September summer stone fruit

Newsletter Subscription

Sacramento Digs Gardening to your inbox.

Flowers in My Back Yard Series

May 12: Know your coreopsis from your bidens

May 5: Mums the word on Mother's Day weekend

April 28: Majestic Matilija poppy is worth a look

April 21: Celebrate roses, America's favorite flower

April 14: Small flowers with outsized impact

April 7: Calendulas do double duty

April 3: Make Easter lilies last for years to come

March 31: In praise of a pollinator magnet (small-leaf salvias)

March 24: Azaleas brighten shady spots

March 17: The perfect flower for beginners? Try zonal geraniums

March 10: Keep camellias happy for years to come

March 3: Fruit tree blossoms are a fleeting joy

Feb. 27: Are your roses looking rusty?

Feb. 24: Treasure spring daffodils now and for years to come

Feb. 17: How and why to grow wildflowers

Feb. 10: Let's talk Valentine's Day roses

Feb. 3: Why grow flowers?

Local News

Taste Spring! E-cookbook

Find our spring recipes here!

Sites We Like

Garden checklist for week of May 17

With an eye on warmer weather to come, continue to work on the summer vegetable garden:

* Remember to irrigate your tender transplants. The wind can quickly dry out young plants. Seedlings need consistent moisture. Deep watering will help build strong roots and healthy plants. Water early in the morning for best results.

* Plant, plant, plant! It’s prime planting season in the Sacramento area. Time to set out those tomato transplants along with peppers and eggplants. Pinch off any flowers on new transplants to make them concentrate on establishing roots instead of setting premature fruit.

* Direct-seed melons, cucumbers, summer squash, corn, radishes, pumpkins and annual herbs such as basil.

* Harvest lettuce, peas and green onions.

* In the flower garden, direct-seed sunflowers, cosmos, salvia, zinnias, marigolds, celosia and asters. (You also can transplant seedlings for many of the same flowers.)

* Plant dahlia tubers.

* Transplant petunias, marigolds and perennial flowers such as astilbe, calibrachoa, columbine, coneflowers, coreopsis, rudbeckia and verbena.

* Keep an eye out for slugs, snails, earwigs and aphids that want to dine on tender new growth.

* Feed summer bloomers with a balanced fertilizer.

* For continued bloom, cut off spent flowers on roses as well as other flowering plants.

* Put your veggie garden on a regular diet. Set up a monthly feeding program, and keep track on your calendar. Make sure to water your garden before applying any fertilizer to prevent “burning” your plants.

* As spring-flowering shrubs finish blooming, give them a little pruning to shape them, removing old and dead wood. Lightly trim azaleas, fuchsias and marguerites for bushier plants.

* Don’t forget to weed! Those invaders are growing fast.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

Taste Summer! E-cookbook