Malna - you ask how the recipe sounds so here is a Brit perspective. I am always interested to hear of elderberries being used by you US cooks because over here they are only used for jelly or wine as the seeds are considered too unpalatable to eat. To me that recipe sounds very seedy and crunchy. And although I love almond flavour I don't really like the sound of mixing it with elderberries which have a very distinctive flavour of their own. I think there is quite a fundamental culinary difference in taste between the UK and the States. Many of the recipes you exchange on this forum sound a bit excessively flavoured to my ear. For example, I mean no offence by this but raspberry and chocolate preserve which I have read of here sounds absolutely disgusting to me. I love both and feel that mixing them would detract from both. However, through you I have discovered that strawberry and rhubarb is delicious. And that's a combination I never would have dreamt of trying before. But then I believe that blackcurrant is widely disliked in the US. I find these differences really interesting and I hope none of you will take offence at my comments. I think we just have plainer tastes over here.

Elderberries, around here, grow wild on the edges of streams and rivers, very moist soil, even somewhat wetter than blueberrues like. Here is a link that might be useful: Elderberries

Hope someone took you up on this. It's a shame that we don't have more local trading other than the regional spring and fall swaps. Our Tennessee Exchange Forum should stay busy, especially in warmer weather. As it is, almost no one even uses it. This forum (the discussion forum) isn't for trades, but I guess there's so little going on in the proper forum that people are afraid no one will see their post there.

Elder is the herb of the year according to the International Herb Association. I read an article in the Wichita Eagle in May about it. There is an elderberry winery near Wichita, Wyldewood Cellers, in Mulvane, KS which sells all kinds of elderberry food items. You can dehydrate elderberries (115-degrees F) and rehydrate them to use later. The berries dry to a mere speck of their former selves. There is a recipe for elderberry tincture made from dehydrated elderberries I found here: http://www.earthclinic.com/Herbs/elderberry.html -- which is supposed to be "a natural home remedy that is much cheaper than Tamiflu to prevent and cure the flu and the common cold." ELDERBERRY VINEGAR: Place 2 cups of stemmed elderberries in an ovenproof dish. Cover with white distilled vinegar and cook in a 300 degrees F oven for 1 1/2 hours, or until the berries burst. Let the mixture stand overnight, then strain. The link below has a lot of elderberry ideas.... Maybe one will catch your eye. There is a great line in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" where they are taunting the French ..."Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries." If anyone mentions elderberries around our family, we immediately quote this line, and the even funnier preceding and following lines - but I digress :-). -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Pinterst - Elderberry/Elderflower/ Elder Bark 2013 Herb of the Year