Trey- It's not hard at all. The most important thing, though, is that you HAVE to have a steamer. Elderberries are really really small and each berry has a stem which is clustered with an entire flower of berries- usually about 8 inches across. It takes too much time and effort to stem them so the steamer cuts through all of that, you just have to take out the large stems but you can leave them in small clumps. You can smash the berries a bit but if your juice starts to get brown, you want to stop the entire process. The color doesn't hurt anything but it can look a bit like mud if it's over cooked or over mashed. The juice really is a beautiful deep burgandy if it's done well. Once you have the juice it's simple- we used the recipe that's in the Ball lid instructions. Elderberries are pretty sour so there is a lot of sugar. I believe it's 4.5 cups of sugar with 4 cups of elderberries, 1/4 cup of lemon juice and a box of pectin. You boil it 4 minutes, put it in jars, and put in a hot water bath for 5 minutes. Really easy and very tasty! Give it a try but be aware that we started at 10 and finished at 4 to process 2 five-gallon buckets. It's very time consuming to steam the berries and we didn't have to do any trimming of the clusters- my dad did that for us when he harvested them.
I think pickled beets are pretty good. Some people I know don't like beets too much but love pickled beets. But each person has their own preference. Marian and I were nibbling on the beets as we were cutting and slicing because we really like them.
I'm curious how you came across my journal. It's always interesting to find out what appeals to people.
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It's not hard at all. The most important thing, though, is that you HAVE to have a steamer. Elderberries are really really small and each berry has a stem which is clustered with an entire flower of berries- usually about 8 inches across. It takes too much time and effort to stem them so the steamer cuts through all of that, you just have to take out the large stems but you can leave them in small clumps. You can smash the berries a bit but if your juice starts to get brown, you want to stop the entire process. The color doesn't hurt anything but it can look a bit like mud if it's over cooked or over mashed. The juice really is a beautiful deep burgandy if it's done well. Once you have the juice it's simple- we used the recipe that's in the Ball lid instructions. Elderberries are pretty sour so there is a lot of sugar. I believe it's 4.5 cups of sugar with 4 cups of elderberries, 1/4 cup of lemon juice and a box of pectin. You boil it 4 minutes, put it in jars, and put in a hot water bath for 5 minutes. Really easy and very tasty! Give it a try but be aware that we started at 10 and finished at 4 to process 2 five-gallon buckets. It's very time consuming to steam the berries and we didn't have to do any trimming of the clusters- my dad did that for us when he harvested them.
I think pickled beets are pretty good. Some people I know don't like beets too much but love pickled beets. But each person has their own preference. Marian and I were nibbling on the beets as we were cutting and slicing because we really like them.
I'm curious how you came across my journal. It's always interesting to find out what appeals to people.