The magic power of elderberries

Have you ever tried a raw elderberry? They are tart and earthy and not really very good. Ivan eats them raw, but then again he likes sticking a toothbrush into my strawberry bed soil and then sticking it in his mouth, so that really isn't a recommendation. The awesome thing about elderberries is that they magically transform into awesomeness as soon as you cook them. How is that for a neat survival trait in a plant? Doing research for our Saxon village I found that elderberries grew and were used for food and medicine during that time period so I figured I might as well put a few into the yard. I was able to pick one up at the Tree Man in Paso and another through a catalog. Two years into it and the bushes are growing very well. The original bush is over 8 feet tall and has given us tons of fruit this year.

When the berries were starting to ripen we would taste them periodically and figured that they just tasted like bum. Near the end of July the berries were getting pretty full and I even emailed one of our friends in the Nevada City area to see what he did with the elderberries that grew wild on his property to see if we could get some ideas of what to do. He had the same experience with the berries and had made a cordial with them. My interest was peaked again one night when Jed was watching The Hatfields and the McCoys and one of the ladies said, "Mmmm, elderberry jam. Ain't nothing sweeter," with this look of complete ignorance. My though, of course, was have you tried elderberries?

I started doing more research on them because they couldn't just be that bad. I mean, they are mentioned in tons of medieval texts and self sufficient books from Britian. I started finding references to the taste change that happens when you cook them and I wanted to try it. One morning while Jed and I were getting ready to make breakfast I offered to bring in some elderberries to eat with the scones since we were out of raisins. I suggested we double the honey since they had always tasted very tart before. The outcome was something amazing. Slightly sweet with mild mulberry like taste and a slight tartness to it. In short, we were hooked. But no matter how often we eat scones and pancakes, I could never make enough of them to keep up with the supply of berries. I decided to try making jam. I found some references to soaking the berries in honey for a couple of hours before making them into jam so I thought I'd try that.

Yesterday, Ivan and I picked a bucket full of berries and I would take some berries off the stem whenever I would pass them. After Ivan fell asleep for the night I then stayed up to clean the rest. I only got about 6 cups cleaned and ready to use but I was too tired and it was past midnight. I added about 2.5 cups of honey to them and put them in the fridge. One other thing that the pages I read said was to 'wait until the juice is released," which I had no clue what this might reference. I found out in the morning when I saw the bowl with about 4 cups of liquid and 2 cups of floating berries. Apparently, the berries are primarily juice and it is released when mixed with a sweetener or cooked. During Ivan's morning nap I was able to clean another 4 cups of berries and I ended up just giving the last two cups to the chickens for them to snack on. I simmered the berries for a bit while I was with Ivan. After Marky came home I had enough time to set the water bath and the juice to boil so that I could can the berries. I added the pectin and cooked it down a little bit more. As soon as the berries coated the spoon I turned of the simmering jam and packed them in cans. I put them back in a water bath for 15 minutes although some of the sources said 5 minutes would do.

I tried the syrup before I made it into jam and it was amazing. It tasted just like the blue tootsie pop. Exactly, including the slightly chocolaty aftertaste. It was amazing!! I then found additional sources for elderberry pie, crumble, ice cream, and tons of other recipes. I'm going to have to try them all out and see if we can save the jam for the winter. Although if the jam is as tasty as the strawberry jam we made earlier this year then it won't last until the end of the month. I'm glad the bush is still producing berries because now I'm looking forward to cooking a lot more with them. I'm also thinking about adding a few more in the Saxon area so that we can have them in the back and so that they can provide shade for other berries.