ELDERBERRY FEST 2010 -- SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16

Elderberry Fest 2010 opened Saturday, October 16, with a farm breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast. Nick had brought a jar of his Seattle Blackberry jelly which we sampled on our toast -- very good.Then we donned jackets and caps and headed out to find elderberry bushes, carrying with us a hacksaw and pruners. I thought we were heading back to the canyon rim, but wordlessly Hallie and Nick fell to work on the pictured bush before we arrived at my destination. Meanwhile Mike left to take Nellie to the vet in Orofino, and Clint's online research revealed our old Ward's riding mower to be a sought-after model to be converted to a lawnmower race.

In due time Mike returned from the vet's with bandages to protect Nellie's wound when she hunts, but alas! the medicine had been left behind. Somehow the little bottle disappeared behind the bell on the vet's counter and both the receptionist and Mike overlooked it. There was nothing to do but to return to town, which Mike did reluctantly. (Of course, he didn't say much about having to do that -- LOL.)

Having picked a bucket of lovely clumps of elderberry, Nick and I worked to clean and stem them. By the way, I don't know who's white head that is in the picture -- certainly not mine!

After lunch Clint said good-bye. He said he didn't know when he'd be back. But he'll return in his pick-up sometime because he wants that old Ward's mower.

After cooking the stemmed elderberries, we strained the juice through cheesecloth. Those berries netted us plenty of juice. Here I am -- calling the attention of my students to some important facet of jelly making.

Nick checks the steaming hot berries as the juice drips into the bowl.

Nick said he prefers straight elderberry jelly instead of the blend of elderberry and apple. Mike prefers elderberry-apple, but fortunately I have plenty of jars and plenty of juice and can make everyone happy. Here Nick adds sugar to the elderberry juice -- 4 1/2 cups of pre-measured pure cane sugar to 3 cups juice. Sugar high, anyone? As Nick and I worked away, Hallie handled the camera work, often standing on a little Sunday school chair for extra height. I noticed she was whistling Christmas songs.

Nick tips the stock pot so that I can ladle every last drop of precious jelly liquid -- hot, hot, hot.











And here we are placing the lids and rings on hot jars filled with the marvelous elderberry elixir. This was not quite the final step, though. We then placed the jars on a rack in the canning kettle and boiled them for five minutes to provide a hard seal. This was the first time I have done that. We found the rack to be inadequate, really, for small jelly jars, but we made it work.

We made one more batch of jelly Saturday afternoon, this time without added pectin. I don't remember exact proportions, but we added some prepared country apple juice to the elderberries and sugar, then let it simmer. Elderberries apparently don't have much natural pectin, so apple juice is a good addition. It also tempers the strong elderberry flavor. It took a long time for it to reach 220 on my candy thermometer, and I think we all wondered if that vintage method is really worth the time in the modern world. Still, it was a good demonstration of how "grandmother" made her jelly. We also tried "sheeting" the hot mixture on a plate, but I considered that experiment inconclusive. 

While I finished up in the kitchen, Hallie and Nick went back out to explore and prune more bushes. This time they found some wild raspberry bushes -- or whatever they are -- and pruned them.

We were all exhausted at the end of the day, but a rather good feeling knowing we had accomplished so much.