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Elderberries

13 years ago

We had a ton of rain from mid-May through early July and I've got tons of elderberries!!! I've already got some frozen, made syrup, made jam, and made jelly. Wish I had the stuff to make wine! lol!

Does anyone have a favorite recipe for elderberries? or know how I can make wine without any special ingredient(s)???!!! I once tried a favorite 'blueberry buckle' (coffee-cake type) and sub'd elderberries for the blueberries... I liked it, but I think that others didn't care for all the seeds. :p

PS: I'll also make an elderberry pie once I get some apples to add to the filling. :)

This post was edited by party_music50 on Sat, Aug 17, 13 at 11:22

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Comments (2)

grainlady_ks
13 years ago
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
party_music50
Original Author
13 years ago
lol! I love that movie. What's your favorite color? red, no blue, no, AAAHHHHHHHH! :O)

Thanks, grainlady, for the laugh and the link/ideas! I will definitely try the elderberry liquor! and the elderberry fudge sounds great too!
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You are in a much warmer zone than I am, but in my garden, the red elderberry (Sambucus pubens /aka S. racemosa) blooms decidedly earlier than the American elderberry (S. canadensis), which has dark, purplish-red berries and is used for jam. I grow the former one for the birds. Are you referring to S. caerulea when you say "blue elderberry" or S. canadensis? We don't grow caerulea here.
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Prunus was a suggestion not a definite id. I'm wondering if the multi stemmed habit is the result of it's being cut to the ground in the past. More pix of stems, bark and leaves might help narrow it down. Also a sense of scale. How long are these leaves? If I've underestimated them it could even be a peach. Is this a cultivated setting it waste land? Being next to the elder might imply it's a bird sown shrub.
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