How to Harvest and Preserve Juniper Berries from Eastern Red Cedar Trees

Juniper berries can be foraged from a common shrub, the Eastern Red Cedar. Tips for identifying, harvesting, and dehydrating juniper berries are covered. Also provided are ideas for using juniper berries.

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Eastern Red Cedars are a common sight in southwest Michigan. These scrubby evergreens crop up wherever they can gain a foothold. We find them in our pastures, along the edges of the woods, and on the sides of our driveway. They are hardy, drought resistant, and thrive even in depleted, sandy soil.

While I wouldn’t consider them the most beautiful tree to grace our landscape, I don’t mind having a few Eastern Red Cedars on our farm. They provide food and shelter for wildlife like white-tailed deer, rabbits, coyotes, and a multitude of birds. Our goats love them too! They will strip and eat the bark of the Eastern Red Cedar and stand on their hind legs to get each leaf, berry, and branch they can reach. Not only that, but our family enjoys the bounty of this wild shrub as well.

Read on to learn about how we forage juniper berries every fall, dehydrate them, and use them in a variety of ways throughout the year.

Identifying Eastern Red Cedars

The Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) is not a true cedar; they are really a juniper and belong to the cypress family. Eastern Red Cedars are abundant and can be found throughout North America. You can recognize the Eastern Red Cedar by its green scaley foliage and peeling reddish bark. They have a single truck and grow upright, but often have sparse, patchy branches giving them a more shrub-like appearance.

As conifers, they do not lose their leaves in the fall and reproduce with cones that bear their seeds. What we call “juniper berries” are really modified cones that are produced by female Easter Red Cedars and not berries at all.

Juniper berries start out green and take a few years to mature. Ripe juniper berries are edible and have a deep blue color with a dusty white outer covering, or bloom. It is not uncommon to find unripe and ripe berries on the same tree.

When foraging, it is always better to be safe than sorry. I recommend using a plant identification book/ smartphone app or experienced friend to help you identify Eastern Red Cedars.

Harvesting Juniper Berries

Juniper berries can be harvested in the fall or winter by hand picking or shaking the branches of the tree. When harvesting, take care to collect only the ripe blue berries, avoiding green ones, leaves, and stems. Green berries are very bitter, and the leaves contain a toxin that can cause gastrointestinal upset.

Before I harvest juniper berries from a tree, I sample one or two to make sure they are good. Juniper berries should have a short-lived initial sweetness that is followed by a piney/peppery aftertaste.

Although juniper berries are edible, they should only be consumed in moderation. They are really for adding flavor and not eating, kind of like a spice.

Preserving Juniper Berries

If you want to store the juniper berries you have collected for using later, they can easily be preserved by drying. They can be air dried, or you can put them in a dehydrator to speed up the process.

Before drying your freshly foraged juniper berries, rinse them with water to remove any dirt, debris, or insects that may have hitched a ride home. Then take some time to sort them and discard any leaves, stems, and damaged or unsightly berries. Now you are ready for the drying step.

I use a dehydrator to expedite the drying process. I line my food dehydrator trays with reusable cheesecloth to keep the berries from falling through. I simply place the juniper berries on the cheesecloth and leave them overnight. In my experience, it takes about 12 hours to fully dehydrate juniper berries. You will know they are fully dried when they are shriveled and almost black in color.

If you opt to air dry your berries, realize that this will take about a month’s time. Spread the berries in a single layer on a tray like a baking sheet and place it in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area.

Dried juniper berries can be stored in an airtight container indefinitely. You can buy spice jars online, or even better, reuse some old ones from your cupboard!

Using Juniper Berries

Juniper berries can be used for a range of culinary and medicinal applications. My favorite thing to use juniper berries for is flavoring meat dishes. It’s sweet/piney/peppery profile pairs well with goat meat and venison, which we enjoy in our household regularly.

When cooking with dried juniper berries, you will get the most flavor impact by crushing the berries right before use. You can use a mortar and pestle, coffee bean/ spice grinder, or meat tenderizing mallet to crush the berries.

Juniper berries are what gives gin its signature taste. You can make homemade gin by infusing juniper berries and other botanicals into a neutral liquor like vodka. For my steeped gin recipe, click here!

I have also experimented with creating a sourdough starter using fresh juniper berries. The bloom on foraged juniper berries contains wild yeast that can be used to initiate fermentation. For more on my juniper sourdough escapades, click here.

If foraging isn’t your thing and you still want to use juniper berries to make things, you can buy them too! You can find them in the spice aisle of your grocery store or purchase them online.