A Boodle Of Elderberries

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After my initial enthusiastic elderberry spree, I had to catch up on a number of neglected homestead chores and pretty much forgot about the foraged fruit for a couple of weeks. Then one morning the same neighbor who first told me about elderberries sent her two boys over ... and those youngsters had brought me shopping bags stuffed with the purple clusters. The fruit actually looked a little old and dull to me, butwhen I called up to thank the kind woman—she explained that those elder rounds came from her special patch . . . and that the dusty look of the berries meant they had reached the peak of ripeness. "That 'bloom' is caused by the light frosts we've been having," she told me. "You watch. The birds will gobble up all the berries now."

ELDERBERRY JELLY

I was glad to have such an abundant supply of berries, but I didn't feel like "detwigifying" every single purple fruit . . . so I decided to simply clean out the leaves and larger branches and make juice. I boiled and mashed the clumps in small amounts of water, and then I hung the pulp-twigs and all—in jelly bags . . . until all the liquid dripped out.

Then, since an old childhood jump-rope jingle ("Elderberry jelly, huckleberry pie. That's what we like, me oh MY!") kept running through my head, I started making jelly. I simply combined a cupful of elder berry juice with two-thirds cup of honey and boiled down the mixture until it sheeted. Lo and behold, I ended up with a tender, firm, sweet-tart product that would have made my mother (the cooking queen of my childhood's county fairs) proud!

That batch was a great success with my family and friends, so I kept experimenting with the juice. I soon discovered that elderberries are low in natural pectin and that if I added some of the commercial gel-aiding substance, I could get a lot more jelly for the same amount of work. Better yet, I found that I could mix a naturally pectin-rich fruit juice—like grape or green apple—with equal parts of my elderberry drippings, to give my concoctions a brand-new tangy flavor!

ELDERBERRY SLUMP

After stuffing my shelves with a variety of elder jellies, I still had a kegful of juice . . . so I tied my apron back on and created a juice-and-dumpling dessert: elderberry slump. First I mixed together 2 cups of elderberry juice, 2/3 cup of honey, a sprinkle of cornstarch (for thickener), and 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice. I let that combination simmer slowly in a pot while I started on the dumplings.

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