Monday morning, Mark van de Meer and his associate, Lucas, came to visit. Mark is a well-known conservationist in these parts and Lucas is the practical side of the partnership. They are walking around to see what’s growing, what the deer are preventing from growing, and how to protect the eroding creek bank. I have to leave them for a conference call after a bit, but before I do, Mark points out the huge clusters of blue-to-purple berries on a few of the bushes and tells me they are elderberries. As in elderberry wine (Elton John)? As in sambucus/elderberry throat lozenges? Yes, yes. One of the 3 best known natural remedies to break up cold and cough. Hmmmm….
So the next day, Mary Anne and I go out with buckets and snippers to retrieve some of the aforementioned berries. I snip from the few bushes in the meadow, and drive along the road, where they line the border of my property. I really get in there to access some of the riper clusters, and as I head back to dump them in the basket in Mary Anne, I feel some stinging under my pants. Before I know it, I am brushing off angry little ants who are letting me know for real they’re not happy I was stomping around their hill. When I realize what’s going on, I actually – standing in the middle of the road – unsnap and pull down my pants to brush off what’s there (just a few) and then snap back and roll my pants all the way up to get any little buggers who have crawled up the inside. Not an infestation, but I wanted to be sure to spot them before they bit me!
Drama over, I headed back to the lodge with two baskets of berries:
and you would not believe how long it took to de-berry the clusters! At first, I was pulling off each berry individually. Then I said “to hell with that” and I started combing them off. The woman in the Youtube video actually used something that looked like an afro pick! I asked Michael where his was, and he just shrugged.
Once the majority was done, I washed them and covered in a pot with water to bring to a boil, and over the next 45 minutes, kept adding until I was done. They simmered, I stirred the pot (how unusual for me):
and the scent of elderberry filled the house. After about 45 minutes or so, I started scooping berries out with a strainer, smushing them with the potato masher:
until there was nothing left but juice. I added a bit of chopped ginger, way less sugar than most recipes called for, and then started simmering again. By this time, it was about midnight, and decided to put it away. The next morning, I cooked it down for about an hour, poured into jars and processed. Another notch on the belt!