Please add "DO NOT crush the seeds" as they are poisonous, as well as the leaves. Thanks!

Re: Sue Williams comment about seeds being poisonous. This is not true. Native Americans have been consuming choke cherries for hundreds of years or more. The colonists learned about choke cherries from the native people's and non died from eating the seeds. There is an amount of cyanide found in the pits, but the same is true in raw, unpasteurized apples and I know numerous people who consume everything except the stem of apples.
Once chock cherries have been heated the chemical composition of the berry changes and there is no longer cyanide in the pit.
The amount found in raw berries is not enough to remotely do harm, and in fact using the seeds creates a very lovely flavor. In freshly picked and harvested berries the flavor is like almonds, in dried and pulverize berries it tastes very similar to chocolate.
Hopefully this will ease so e concerns and encourage people to try some of the old recipes that the native tribes taught the colonists and forward. Choke cherry flour is an awesome on... But a quick search will give you more recipes and info than you will know what to do with.
Have a blessed labor day to all

In response to the comment about the seeds being poisonous, they're not. The Montana State University Extension Office publishes recipes for chokecherries and some include crushing the pits. I wouldn't go chowing down on them as they do contain poisonous compounds, but it won't kill you to eat a few dozen at a time.

To be more precise, chokecherry pits contain the cyanide also found in peach, apricot and other cherry pits. Cooking the chokecherry pits destroys a lot of the cyanide.

Choke cherry seeds are not poisonous. My dad always ate the seeds when we went choke cherry picking. I, to this day eat a lot of the seeds (pits).

All cherry seeds are poisonous, but its generally safe to eat the whole thing raw as long you don't crush the pit. They will safely pass through your gut without releasing their contents. Incidentally, they are poisonous for deer (and other ungulates) because their four part stomach is able to completely digest the pit. Those animals get the full dose of cyanide. You can too if you make a point of biting into it.. Choke cherry is practically all pit. Eat those things with care.