Edible Elderberry

Earlier this week we were enjoying a family bike ride on one of the local trails, (well, most of us were enjoying it, but one of us was severely whining whenever we came upon any part of the trail that had even the slightest incline). Heather stopped along the trail and was quite sure that the shrub she saw in the culvert was a Black Elderberry. Once we arrived at home Heather consulted the Bible, a.k.a. Peterson Field Guide of Edible Wild Plants, (we're all spiritual...just about different things), and was sure that was the case. Now, for some of you that aren't aware, when it comes to wild foraging, Heather can be like a pit bull, so I was sure we'd be making a trip back to that same spot the next day. Sure enough, we hopped on our bikes the very next day and picked a small bunch of Elderberries and headed home to figure out just what the hell to do with them. This is half the fun of foraging for food, finding wild edibles is one thing, but discovering ways to add them to your diet is another.

Berry Clusters

For those of you that are interested, (according to our Petersons Guide) Black Elderberry fruit is found Aug-Oct  in "wet or damp rich soils; streambanks, thickets, roadside ditches, Canada to South Georgia". For more info, please look here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus. Heather took our first bunch and crushed it on a colander over a bowl to "juice" the berries. It is recommended that the berries either be cooked or dried to remove any possible toxicity. Once she had a juice, she simply added ice and watered it down a bit to have a wonderfully mellow, slightly-sweet fruit juice.


Today, we were hiking on a trail in a different park altogether and

came upon several more Elderberry shrubs. Now that Heather had identified the plants for sure and we had drank the juice and did not die or anything, we felt it was safe to harvest a good deal more.

While we enjoyed the juice, we decided that this time we'd dry the berries this time around. Our plan is to add the dried berries to pancakes, muffins and such once dried.