Harvest time; or: Elderberry Adventures

[janestarz]

As mentioned in my blog post from yesterday, NoKey and I have harvested elderberries on our ride home from Zoetermeer. The elder shrubs/trees (they're quite tall) grew adjacent to the river Rotte and a bike path, near a bit of wild nature and quite far from any major roads.
As a reference, in Dutch elderberries are also known as 'vlierbessen'. Its Latin name is Sambucus.

So following the picture of the cutest tomato I harvested from our balcony, let's work on some elderberrysmurrie.



First some more information about elder, elderflowers, and elderberries.
"[Elder shrubs] contain a cyanide-producing glycoside in their leaves, twigs, and seeds, so special care should be exercised in pressing elderberries for wine or jelly, to ensure that all seeds are removed. It is best that children not use their twigs as pea-shooters or for carved whistles."^[1]
I once tried roasting marshmellows on elder twigs. Not a good idea!

Reports about the flowers vary. The website from above quote also says that the flowers may contain an alkaloid -- but there are numerous recipes with elderflowers to be found. The BBC website has several lovely recipes online and even says that you can make beer from elderflowers.^[2] Some people place the flower screens in pancakes, or make a syrup with lemon.

Unripe elderberries are unhealthy^[3] and raw elderberries have a laxative effect^[4], which cooking will nullify. Pregnant women should avoid eating elderberries, and the berry has a positive effect on all fluid secretions. It's also claimed to be "antiviral, antibiotic and antibacterial and has been used for centuries for soothing upper respiratory infections".^[5]

Finally, good ol'e Wikipedia quotes a study indicating that Elderberry extract is a very good remedy against the flu.^[6]
I'd also like to add that I think that elderberries will be very tasteful with a roast or in medieval-like meat dishes, just like apples.



We had picked roughly 1.2 kilogrammes of berries. While 'watching' some episodes of Star Trek Voyager I took the berries off their stems. This is rather important as it will count as quality control -- some unripe berries were thrown out. There were a lot of small spiders and bugs still on the berries, but they skittered off as I took the berries from the stems. We set the berries in the fridge overnight, as it was already getting quite late.



Last night I continued on this adventure right after dinner. First up was washing the berries in a sink of water. I did this in batches.



The berries were then thrown into a small pan, and started to heat until boiling. Batch after batch of washed berries were added and the mixture was slowly heated to boiling.



The berries are breaking up and the juice and seeds are coming free. It's a rather vivid colour and I doubt if you spilt some on your clothes you'd get it out. Can I have a dress in this colour please?



The berries are boiling, and the laxatives are breaking down. I added some sugar at this point, but the pan was nearly too full. I kept stirring, and when it had boiled for a while, I threw the mixture into a sieve, which was suspended in our largest pan.



There's a lot of juice coming from the berries, and the sieve catches the skins and seeds of the berries. But a lot of the good stuff also stays behind, so...



...I press the goo through the sieve with a wooden spoon. It smells really odd... like green stuff, berries, and wild fermenting forest. I've nearly added a kilo of sugar at this point, and make sure the juice in the pan below the sieve is heating slowly to a boil so all the sugar will dissolve well.
It's a messy job, but someone's got to do it!



After I tire of pressing stuff through the sieve, I throw the seeds and skins out and rinse off the spoon. The mixture in the pan is set to boil. My recipe said that for marmalade or jelly you should add lemon juice and let it thick to the wanted thickness. We added lemon juice and let the mixture boil for an hour in the hopes of getting a thick marmalade. Of course a lot of the fibers were still in the sieve, so it will not be very marmelade-ey, but you can always hope!



Artistic intermezzo while we wait for the mixture to set into jelly.
Reflection of the pan in the juice, reflecting part of the kitchen.
Gooey!



NoKey cleaned and sterilised several old jars (corn, mayonaise and the other one) by cleaning them out with hot water and pouring boiling water into it before filling it with the mixture. The first jar is filled as soon as the sugar is completely dissolved, in the time-honoured Nijm tradition of distilling berry-juice. My grandmother and mother always made blackberry juice (in Drents: 'lodderige brummels').



As per the recipe's instructions, the filled jar is placed upside down for at least five minutes. Because the stuff is warm, it will be almost vacuum when we open it again (cooling down creates a drop in pressure inside).


The other two jars are filled, after an hour's boiling with frequent stirring (every 5 to 10 minutes), with the remains of the mixture. It has thickened, but it's nowhere near jelly-thickness.

A label with a date is crucial if you do this every year so you know which jars to eat first. When your pots are cleaned thoroughly, you can save the jelly/juice for months if not years without going bad.



The results? I did have a little bit of the juice while working on it, and it was nice and sweet. I think I'll enjoy the juice through my yoghurt.
The first jelly pot, which NoKey opened this morning, isn't completely jelly-thickness. It's more a very thick syrup, and very sticky. He wasn't crazy about the taste, but maybe it's better if it's refrigerated.

We can always serve it with our pancakes on this Sunday's Anarquendor meet. I'd be happy to hear Nathreee's hobbit's opinion on the taste!


-----

[1] From: Poisonous plants, Nova Scotia Museum website.
[2] From: H2G2 on BBC.co.uk.
[3] From: Elderberries.com.
[4] From: De Kooktips.com; also read in my herbal encyclopedia.
[5] From: Herbal Extracts plus.
[6] From: Wikipedia.

Comments

[anemoona.livejournal.com]

Looks good! If it's to liquid for bread, pancakes is a good alternative.

[anemoona.livejournal.com]

I remember that my dad put some kind of powder-something in the home made jelly. I just can't remember what is was, it is to make the jelly thicker. I will ask him when I see him.

[erwinl.livejournal.com]

Geleisuiker instead of ordinary sugar?
That should do the trick. I'm not sure if using maizena is a good action.
Other than that I wouldn't know.

Shurf

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Geleisuiker. Maar het hielp niet genoeg want NoKey zei al dat het te zoet was.

[twilightbanana.livejournal.com]

Probably pectine. It occurs naturally in a lot of fruit, but in differing amounts.

My mom used to make her own jam as well out of Indonesian fruits. One of them, tamarillo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarillo) contained so much pectine by itself that the resulting jam was as solid as pudding.

[anemoona.livejournal.com]

Wat hij zei!

[muizenstaartje.livejournal.com]

Ooh, sweet! Now I'm hungry. XD

[(Anonymous)]

Ik vind het supergezellig huiselijk om zelf jam te maken! Lekkere geurtjes in huis, je voorraadkast vol voor de winter... Maar ik doe het nooit, want ik houd niet van jam. En dan voelt het ook weer zo zonde van de moeite.

Lenny

[woran.livejournal.com]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm vlierbessenjam *kwijl*

[virginiadear.livejournal.com]

Elderberries lack sufficient pectin of their own to form a jelly; you need to add it when making jelly or jam.
http://oldfashionedliving.com/elderberry.html
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1823,153178-250194,00.html
http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/elderberry_jelly/

My mother's mother used to forage-harvest elderberries in the woods near her home. My father and my mother's father, both,were especially partial to elderberry jelly and elderberry pie/tart.

Still on the subject of preserving fruits although away from the subject of elderberries, I do have a recipe for tomato preserves (not a jelly or a jam, though, just so you know), if you're interested, Jane.