It’s serviceberry season. What the heck is a serviceberry? 

Local foragers know that the last stretch of spring is the serviceberry’s time to shine. The North American native plant’s harvesting season is reaching its tail end. Atlanta foragers, chefs, and bartenders will mark the end of the season with the fourth annual Serviceberry Fest on Tuesday, June 3, in the courtyard of Chef Karl Gorline’s restaurant Avize on Brady Avenue. 

Proceeds from the event, which include dishes and beverages using serviceberries from chefs like Gorline, Duane Nutter (Southern National), Hudson Rouse (Rising Son, Whoopsie’s, Pure Quill Superette), Ayanna John-Carter and Sadiyyah Iddeen (Trending Tending), and Terry Koval (The Deer and the Dove, B-Side, Fawn), will go toward planting a publicly accessible serviceberry orchard in Atlanta. 

Serviceberries grow from small flowering trees in the Amelanchier genus. While serviceberries are native to North America, different species exist across the United States and Canada, and a few species are even native to Europe and Asia. Amelanchier plants vary across climates: In Atlanta, for example, serviceberry trees can reach “tree potential,” while Amelanchier plants in cooler and more arid environments typically don’t grow beyond shrubs. 

In Georgia, serviceberry trees typically reach 20 to 30 feet in height. Serviceberry flowers are usually white or very light pink, have a delicate appearance, and emerge in the early spring. The trees are known to flower around the same time as dogwoods. Eventually, dark purple berries begin to grow and cluster together.

Although serviceberries closely resemble blueberries, they have a mellower and more distinct flavor. Some people describe the taste as slightly nutty, or an overlap of almond, blueberry, and cherry. 

Serviceberries also offer notable health benefits. 

Arabia Mountain park ranger and Atlanta forager Robby Astrove likens serviceberries to acai or muscadines. “That dark purple is very indicative of high antioxidants. It’s not just good for people, but this is a great species for wildlife and attracting birds to your yard,” Astrove said, who founded nonprofit Fruit Forward Orchards and co-founded the Serviceberry Fest. 

Astrove first encountered serviceberries after moving to metro Atlanta in the late 2000s and getting involved with Trees Atlanta. In 2013, he began foraging on behalf of local restaurants after meeting several chefs through his foraging operation and involvement with the East Atlanta Village Farmers Market. Astrove has also worked with the Food Well Alliance and earlier this year joined Slow Food Atlanta. 

He’s now considered a serviceberry authority, often referred to as a “serviceberry whisperer” in chef and foraging circles.  

“If Robby is supplying someone with something foraged, that means he thinks they have good food and he wants to be part of it,” said Chef Hudson Rouse, owner of Rising Son, Pure Quill Superette, and Whoopsie’s. He first met Astrove years ago while working as a vendor at the East Atlanta Village Farmers Market. 

Gorline met Astrove when he worked at Watershed in Brookwood Hills and immediately wanted to be part of his foraging mission. Realizing his impact on local food and restaurants around town, Gorline felt it was time to find other ways to continue supporting Astrove’s work. It’s one of the reasons he offered the outdoor space at Avize to Astrove for the Serviceberry Fest. 

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During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Astrove developed a relationship with Jess Pfeffer of Jess Pfeffer Holistic Event Planning. The couple, now married, conceptualized the Serviceberry Fest together as a way to help local restaurants during the health crisis. 

“Robby was already foraging and bringing berries and other local, native ingredients to restaurants,” Pfeffer said. 

The inaugural Serviceberry Fest in 2021 took place at A Sip of Paradise Garden in East Atlanta and featured eight chefs and two bartenders. Each chef and bartender was given serviceberries and invited to showcase dishes and drinks using the foraged ingredient. A percentage of the proceeds helped fund a serviceberry orchard planted at Wadsworth Magnet School in Belvedere Park in 2022.

Harvest your own

Serviceberries bloom and bear fruit earlier than many other trees, and when harvesting, foragers may leave some fruit behind because serviceberries are very popular with birds. Astrove and Pfeffer recommend leaving around 30 percent of the tree’s fruit for birds. 

In nature, serviceberry trees grow in the understory of the forest, but Atlanta offers plenty of opportunities for urban serviceberry foraging. One doesn’t have to travel far — in fact, there are plenty of serviceberry trees to harvest from inside the Perimeter. 

Local nonprofit Concrete Jungle includes serviceberries on their tree map, and all listed serviceberry trees are either located on public property or open to foragers. For example, serviceberry trees can be found at Piedmont Park and on Georgia Tech’s campus. Astrove actually helped plant many of the trees on the map around a decade ago. 

Koval was given a serviceberry tree at the first festival in 2021. Next spring, it will finally bear fruit, and he and his son can harvest the berries in their yard. In the meantime, he’s made good use of the serviceberry trees available to the public for harvesting in Avondale Estates and Decatur, one of which is located across the street from his downtown Decatur restaurant, The Deer and the Dove.

Cooking with serviceberries

Once harvested, the main challenge with serviceberries is cleaning the fruit. As with other berries, stems end up in the bounty. When cooking with serviceberries, preserving the taste is another challenge.

“You can drown the flavor of the fruit out very easily because it’s mild,” Rouse said. 

To Rouse, the opportunity to let the serviceberry’s taste shine comes best through breakfast dishes and Southern cuisine. At Rising Son and Pure Quill, serviceberries are frequently incorporated into jellies — Rouse’s serviceberry Trojan horse — and served in tandem with biscuits or sausage. Rouse has also made serviceberry waffles. 

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Koval highlights the acidity of serviceberries by contrasting it with fat — pork chops, veal, and venison make ideal companions for sauces and gastriques used for dishes at The Deer and the Dove. Koval’s favorite way to implement serviceberries, however, is in a drink, and his kitchen hoards the harvest so the bar can offer the Something Genteel year-round. The cocktail combines foraged serviceberry syrup with Murrell’s Row Tulsi gin, honeysuckle, and lemon juice.

At Avize, Gorline pairs serviceberry jus with the fallow deer venison course currently on the menu. 

While this year’s Serviceberry Fest is nearly sold out, Atlantans do have another opportunity to taste serviceberries at A Sip of Paradise Garden (adjacent to the East Atlanta Village Farmers Market) on Thursday, May 29, from 4-7 p.m. 

And for those hoping to make something with serviceberries at home, try this Serviceberry Fizz recipe from A Sip of Paradise Garden, served at a previous Serviceberry Fest.