Elderberry loot
Sep. 9th, 2012 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janestarzExactly three years to the day that I tried my first hand at elderberry anything, NoKey and I went out cycling yesterday. Our trip wound to Tilburg South and from there on to Rijen, a town to the west. We stopped for lunch in Reeshof and then again for a good cup of coffee in the center of Rijen, where I also picked up some cards. The holiday feeling was good, the coffee almost as good, but so far not a single elderberry shrub was to be found. Cycling 40 kilometers is a fun trip any time, but the true purpose of it all was to come home with at least some elderberries!
After Rijen we made our way North towards the canal. The Wilhelmina canal is a long one, and if NoKey cycles to work he follows it most of the way there. We've already followed it from Dongen home one afternoon last year and passed through lovely copses along the way. I had high hopes for elderberry shrubs there.
The first few shrubs we found had pitiful berry bunches with most berries shriveled up and the ones on the shade side still green or only just turning dark. But our patience and perseverance were finally rewarded. More and more berries found their way into the saddlebags of my bike and by the time we were back home, NoKey was beat (no longer used to these kinds of trips, what with the surgery and recovery and all) and I was happy as a lark having found so many berries. It was nearing five o'clock and we sat on our asses ripping the berries off the stems while watching several episodes of Stargate Atlantis. By the time we'd finished two episodes the berries were all stem-less and we picked up some fries for dinner. By this time, NoKey was sort of able to walk again.
In the evening, we decided to work with the elderberries more as we wouldn't have enough time for it today, and as NoKey was in the shower I did the dishes (asking permission before stealing all his hot water) and rinsed the berries. They were set to boil and I found a pretty jar in our attic larp storage. We boiled the berries for 20 minutes to get rid of that nasty laxative they have and pressed the stuff through a sieve, leaving nearly 700 ml of juice Also: too many of the stones could kill you, although not everyone agrees on this.
Half the juice was sweetened with some dextrose and poured into a small jar as juice. I'd love to have some with my yoghurt. Here's a Dutch recipe on how to go about it.
The other half of the juice was mixed with grated apple and sweetened with sugar. It boiled for half an hour and then we added jelly powder (geleipoeder, van Van Gils) to make a marmelade. Inspiration was this Dutch recipe.
We now have a jar of juice, a small sampler bottle of juice which will become a gift for my dad's birthday today, a jar of aplle-elderberry marmelade for my mother and a small sampler jar (half-full) of the marmelade for home use.
And of course we still have the elderberry cement I made three years ago, stored in the fridge. That stuff had boiled for an hour or more, using jelly sugar, and it's pretty much indestructible. But still very yummy once you heat it up so you can get it out of the jar.
After Rijen we made our way North towards the canal. The Wilhelmina canal is a long one, and if NoKey cycles to work he follows it most of the way there. We've already followed it from Dongen home one afternoon last year and passed through lovely copses along the way. I had high hopes for elderberry shrubs there.
The first few shrubs we found had pitiful berry bunches with most berries shriveled up and the ones on the shade side still green or only just turning dark. But our patience and perseverance were finally rewarded. More and more berries found their way into the saddlebags of my bike and by the time we were back home, NoKey was beat (no longer used to these kinds of trips, what with the surgery and recovery and all) and I was happy as a lark having found so many berries. It was nearing five o'clock and we sat on our asses ripping the berries off the stems while watching several episodes of Stargate Atlantis. By the time we'd finished two episodes the berries were all stem-less and we picked up some fries for dinner. By this time, NoKey was sort of able to walk again.
In the evening, we decided to work with the elderberries more as we wouldn't have enough time for it today, and as NoKey was in the shower I did the dishes (asking permission before stealing all his hot water) and rinsed the berries. They were set to boil and I found a pretty jar in our attic larp storage. We boiled the berries for 20 minutes to get rid of that nasty laxative they have and pressed the stuff through a sieve, leaving nearly 700 ml of juice Also: too many of the stones could kill you, although not everyone agrees on this.
Half the juice was sweetened with some dextrose and poured into a small jar as juice. I'd love to have some with my yoghurt. Here's a Dutch recipe on how to go about it.
The other half of the juice was mixed with grated apple and sweetened with sugar. It boiled for half an hour and then we added jelly powder (geleipoeder, van Van Gils) to make a marmelade. Inspiration was this Dutch recipe.
We now have a jar of juice, a small sampler bottle of juice which will become a gift for my dad's birthday today, a jar of aplle-elderberry marmelade for my mother and a small sampler jar (half-full) of the marmelade for home use.
And of course we still have the elderberry cement I made three years ago, stored in the fridge. That stuff had boiled for an hour or more, using jelly sugar, and it's pretty much indestructible. But still very yummy once you heat it up so you can get it out of the jar.
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