Elderberry

The elderberry is blooming.  It's bigger than the chicken coop now and loaded with flowers. 

I planted them in 2013, from cuttings I rooted myself.   After almost killing them with love, I backed off and let the ducks fertilize them and the excess water from the garden keep them good and moist.  They are so happy. 

My goal for this year is to figure out how to make a syrup or jelly that I can eat [with no sugar,  honey, maple syrup, agave, etc.]   That's going to take a bit of creative problem solving. 

Elderberry Jelly

They're finally ripe!   I've been waiting on elderberries since they first put out new leaves in the spring.   This year our bush was loaded with flowers and I've been watching the berries slowly ripen for months.

I've been gathering the berries off the stems and putting them right in the freezer so when I have enough I can make jam.   On Friday, my neighbor said I could come pick off her place, too, so I have loads!

When they were all stripped, I had 10 cups of berries.   I added 4 cups of water and boiled.  After I strained it, I had 5 1/2 cups of juice and I followed this recipe here:  http://rurification.blogspot.com/2012/09/elderberry-jelly.html

Mostly.  

I used 1 Tablespoon pectin per cup of juice.  And for sweetening, I used 1 cup of honey from my very own bees [scavenged from damaged comb from last winter] and 1 cup sugar.    Perfect.

What kinds of jam and jelly are you making this year?

Elderberry Flowers

My elderberries are flowering and they are glorious.    Glorious, I tell you.

They make me so happy.

I learned something important about elderberries this year.   They don't like mulch.  

I thought it would be a great idea to put a mushroom bed under them.   They're in just the right place, with just the right dampness and so I put a thick layer of mulch seeded with Stropharia mycelium under the elderberries and within two weeks I started noticing yellowing leaves.  

I did some research and learned that elderberries have a shallow root system and they like it that way.   I figured the mulch was making them very unhappy, so I dug it all up and carted it away to the shady side of the chicken coop.   Within two weeks, the yellowing leaves were greening up and I had buds forming.   Elderberries saved!

I also noticed a huge bush blooming near the creek in a wilder place on our property.   Lily investigated and it looks like in a year or two it will spread out the right direction and we'll be able to reach them from one of our paths.  

Finally, after 15 years of trying, I'll have elderberries here.   I can taste the jelly already.

Whatever Happened to the Elderberries

A few years ago I cut some elderberry branches, rooted them and stuck them in the ground.

They grew.  

And they survived last year's horrible winter.

I saw little pink buds last week.   The two by the chicken coop are the happiest.   The ducks hang out around there and poop all over the place and that spot gets a bit of run-off from the garden so it's well watered. 

Maybe elderberries this year?

Elderberry Progress

After last winter, I despaired of most of my new trees, but they've done really well.

These are two of the elderberry plants I rooted last year via cuttings in a jar of water.

They're doing great!

Of the six that I planted, five lived through the winter.    This means elderberries maybe this year!   I'm so excited.  

Elderberries Ripening

This is an elderberry bush down the way from us.   It's in a waste area near the road and I'll be able to harvest those berries when they're ripe and make Elderberry Jelly, which is my all time favorite jelly EVER.   

Watching berries ripen is like watching paint dry.   Only slower.  Or water boil.   Only a LOT slower.

It's nearer to watching grass grow.   Except our berries ripen even slower than the grass grows out here.  

Elderberry Progress

All six of my elderberry starts are alive.  This is the happiest one.  We planted it just up from the chicken coop at a place that gets a lot of run-off from the hills in the spring and then the veg garden all summer.

I think it likes it there.

Elderberry Cuttings

I've been wanting elderberry bushes forever. 

For. Ever.

We bought some nice expensive ones years ago, but they died.   Since they grow wild around here, I couldn't justify buying more, so I read up and learned that they start reasonably reliably from cuttings.

Some say you should root them in water with willow twigs [which release a rooting hormone into the water].  Others say you should just stick them in the ground as soon as possible.   

I got my cuttings and stuck them in water with willow for a day -  I don't know if that was long enough to get enough hormone from the willow, but I figured it wouldn't hurt while we decided just where to put them.  

I got 6 cuttings from a neighbor whose wild bush sprouted at the mouth of a culvert, down in the ditch.   

We stuck 4 cuttings next to a wet area that grows a lot of orange grass [Acorus calamus] and we stuck 2 cuttings on the hill between the chicken coop and the veg garden where the garden drainage runs down the hill.   They'll get plenty of water there. 

We protected them with fence to keep the rabbits off them and mulched around them with cardboard so they can get a head start from the grass.  

Fingers crossed that most of them take.    I love elderberries.  

Elderberry Jelly

Elderberry flowers, June.

I have always loved finding wild things and making useful stuff with them.   I've had a love affair with elderberries forever and they grow wild around here, just not on our place.   And somehow we're always so busy this time of year that I miss it when they finally ripen and by the time I remember to scavenge from the roadside bushes, they're gone.

This year, I remembered.

I got to my neighbor's bushes right after they were ripe enough for the birds, but I still got some.

I had only a few berries and I ended up with less than a cup of juice.    I added water to make a full cup, then added 1 Tablespoon of pectin and brought it to a boil.  I boiled it hard for 1 minute.   Then I added 1/2 cup of sugar and returned it to a hard boil.   I got only one jar of jelly, but it is the most beautiful jelly in the world. 

In.  The. World.

This is the color of enlightenment and wisdom.  Eat this stuff and your IQ goes up.   Really.   I'm not exaggerating.   

OK - I know some of you think that jelly is scary and hard.   It's no harder than making spaghetti.   Boil it, drain it, mix it with stuff, eat it.    Only with jelly, you keep the stuff you drain off and toss the rest. 

Jelly is easy to make.  This is what you do for any fruit that you want to make jelly with.

• Gather the berries.  
• Gently wash them and put them in a pan with some water so they don't burn when you forget them.  Bring to a boil.   
• Put them in a fine mesh strainer or in some cheesecloth and squeeze the juice out.  
• Keep the juice and throw the skins and seeds to the chickens.  They love it. 
• Measure the juice.
• For every cup of juice, use 1 tablespoon pectin and 1/2 cup sugar

Don't use more than 6 cups of juice at a time.   I like to use 4 cups per batch.  Put the juice and pectin in a pot and bring to a hard rolling boil that you can't stir down.  Boil hard for 1 minute.  Add sugar and return to hard boil.  Boil 1 minute.  Ladle into jars.

Want all of my jam, jelly, glaze, chutney and sauce recipes in one handy-dandy document that you can keep on any of your devices that can read PDFs?    Check out the preview of my book A Simple Jar of Jam in the sidebar.  You'll love it!