Elderberry heads collapse when they are ready to harvest.
Elderberries (Sambucus canadensis) are not a berry you pick and pop in your mouth. While birds can eat elderberry off the bush, it is best for us humans to remove the seed and heat it up a bit before eating them. Elderberries are ready to harvest when they are dark purple and the head collapses (see photo) or just watch when the birds descend on the elderberry bush. Harvesting elderberries is the the easy part, gettIng the little berries off the bitter stem is the tricky part. My friend, Kay Young, suggests using a fork or wide tooth comb. I have also found that freezing them first works pretty well, but some of the bitter stems break off with the berries. Now what do you do with these beautiful purple berries? My most favorite is elderberry and lavender jelly ~ add a couple stems of lavender to the pot as the elderberries cook before you to juice them. To extract the elderberry juice I follow Kay Young’s recipe in her book Wild Seasons of 4 cups elderberry with 1 cup water covered and simmered for 15 minutes then cool and squeeze through a cheese cloth. Then use that juice to make syrup for your pancakes, or added to your adult beverages or a spoonful for your daily dose of immune boosting goodness. My herb teacher, Twila Fairbanks, soaked elderberry in vodka for 4 weeks then daily had a tablespoon to ward off winter colds. My son’s favorite is Kay Young’s purple passion pie made with the elderberry juice, cream cheese, sugar and gelatin in a graham cracker crust topped with a sour cream, vanilla and sugar whipped topping! My friend, Sara Freudenberg, made the most delicious wine from elderberry, apricots and a vanilla bean. If you feel overwhelmed with too much to do to make all these glorious creations take a tip from my buddy Bob Henrickson to freeze the berries, so you can pull them out in the winter when there is more time. Elderberry is also a lovely purple natural dye for food or cloth~I dye silk scarves with the elderberries. With so much to do with elderberries it is tempting to pick them all, but remember birds don’t have grocery stores so leave some for them to enjoy! How do you eat elderberries?
- Jill Kuhel
