Wherever I am is where I'm at...: Harvesting and making elderberry jelly

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

A few weeks ago, while walking the beasties, I saw some bushes loaded with berries that I suspected were elderberries. So I did some research, consulted with all my books, and a few folks I know and these are indeed Elderberries (Sambucus Canadensis).

Note: Be careful when foraging. Make sure you have correctly identified what you are picking. Elderberries do have some poisonous look alikes. Some people confuse them with poke berries which are poisonous, and there's a red variety of elderberries that aren't edible. Also the leaves and stems of the elderberry are poisonous.

I'd recommend buying a few books or even taking a class with a wild edible food expert.

Now Aaron had his doubts about making jelly out of berries we picked on the side of the road (or "crazy berries" as he called them). So I "correctly" labeled a couple jars just for him.

This is an elderberry, tiny aren't they?

So, once you have correctly identified plants, it's time to pick berries. Make sure you get ripe berries, not green (green makes you sick). Don't bother picking individual berries, just pop off the whole cluster at the joint. (gather about 3-4 pounds) Gather the rest of your ingredients.

4 1/2 C sugar
1/4C lemon juice
1 packet of pectin

Gently rinse. Take the berries off the stems, this is a little time consuming, but I found the best method was to pick off and discard any undesirable berries (these were a little late so some clusters had little "raisins" and some wrinkly berries). Once those berries are off, then hold the cluster upside down and rake your thumb over the berries.

Then I rinsed the berries about 3 times, twice letting debris float to the top and pouring it out with the water.

Next mash the berries in a saucepot over medium heat. While it comes to a boil keep mashing to release the juices. When it reaches a boil, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes.

Then place berries in a jelly strainer, or a fine sieve would work, maybe even a few layers of cheesecloth. Let it strain out for a few hours. In the meantime you can prepare your canning jars. I used about 10-12 4oz jelly jars.

Measure about 3C of elderberry juice into a saucepot (use a big one this stuff foams up). (I found I got about 1C juice from each pound of berries) Stir in lemon juice and pectin.

Bring to a boil. Add sugar. Stir with a wooden spoon (this will stain your spoon purple, be ready)

Bring to a boil again, stirring continuously. Once it reaches a rolling boil that doesn't diminish when you stir, start timing. At 2 minutes remove from heat and ladle into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.