Tuesday eating from your yard tip~ 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 humans to remove the seed and heat it up before eating them. The stems, roots, leaves and uncooked seeds and fruit contain cyanogenic glycosides and should not be consumed. 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 the 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. Sunday night I just settled in watching TV to separated the berries by running my fingers gently through the clusters of berries, then picking out any stems that came off with the berries. Whatever your method it is time consuming, but worthwhile.
Now what do you do with these beautiful purple berries? My favorite is elderberry and lavender jelly ~ add a couple stems of lavender to the pot as the elderberries cook. 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. One year for my birthday Kay Young gave me a jar of elderberry juice with a note suggesting I add it to color lemonade.
If the jelly doesn’t set correctly then you have made elderberry syrup. There are all kinds of recipes for elderberry syrup with rose hips, sumac, rhubarb, cardamom, cinnamon, star anise or habaneros added. How ever you make the elderberry syrup it rocks on your pancakes, ice cream, added to your bbq sauce, brownie mix or in an adult beverages.
Elderberry and alcohol seem to be one of the most popular uses. Sharon T. Ohmberger, combines elderberry juice with honey, rum and spices to make an elderberry immune boosting elixir. On that same note a local herb teacher, Twila Fairbanks, soaked elderberry in vodka for 4 weeks then daily had a tablespoon to ward off winter colds. Sarah Freudenburg made the most delicious wine from elderberries, apricots and a vanilla bean. Last but never least mead, mead elderberry mead!!
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! Normally I’m a four step process max then I’m out, but the purple passion pie is worth the toiling to make!
If you are feeling overwhelmed with too much to do to make all these glorious creations take a tip from 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 make 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?
