ELDERBERRIES 2009

The harvesters came in about noon on Sunday. By dusk the same day they had finished this 100 acres – a far cry from the old days, but that's another story.

The ripening crops have prevented our scouting around the fields, and Mike was anxious to take the tour. So, while the harvesters were still working he hopped on a 4-wheeler and rode the perimeter of the farm.

"There are a couple of good elderberry trees on the canyon's edge, and the berries are ripe," he announced.

"No! Not now! I can't deal with them now. They can't be ripe," I said emphatically. After all, my daughter's getting married this week. I have other things to do.

"Well, they sure look ripe to me," Mike said. "Some of them look dry."

I have never been fond of the process of making elderberry jelly, but I will say, of all the things I do, the end product has been lauded and appreciated. From the first time Mike tasted my dad's elderberry jelly, he was sold on it and the pressure was on to make more. And apparently love at first taste also happened for our soon-to-be-son-in-law, Nick. "Next year, I'll help you," he said quietly last year. Well, his heart was in the right place, and I just couldn't say what I was thinking: "Next year you'll get married and either the wedding or the fact that you've spent your vacation days on a honeymoon trip will prevent your helping me." Insightful on my part, if I do say so myself.
Naturally, a good pseudo-retro farmwife steps up to the task at hand, so this morning I sat behind Mike on the 4-wheeler, clutching the bale of a 5-gallon container as we rode out to the elderberry trees – two of them on the edge of Little Canyon.It didn't take us long to figure out that we would need some sort of tool to pull down the upper branches laden with clusters of berries so that we could pick the best fruit. Mike left Nellie and me there at the trees while he rode back to the house to devise the tool. He was gone quite a while and I teased him about leaving me there to finish the picking by myself. But he did make a handy tool out of an old dowel and a bicycle hook. All in all, we picked about seven gallons of elderberries.



Back at the house, the day's work was just beginning – stemming and cooking the berries. First, I cleared the clutter off the kitchen counter. Then I began the process of stemming the berries. I worked the first hour alone, and then Mike joined me and we worked together for another hour. I'm tellin' ya – it's labor-intensive.


While we were working, a snake -- a non-venomous racer -- joined us.

In the end I cooked three soup-pots-full of elderberries which I subsequently strained through flour sacking. For years, people used cheesecloth for this process but it's arguable that today's cheesecloth is up to the task. In the end I figured I have enough juice for seven (7) batches of jelly.

There were things that didn't get done today, including some baking for the Seattle trip. And I still have a little handwork on my mother-of-the-bride dress to do this evening. But accomplishment is always a good feeling and sometimes choices have to be made. We can always buy cookies. KW