Momtezuma Tuatara
29-01-09, 07:26 PM
January is elderberry time, when my "bagged" fruit is starting to be ready to deal with.
I bag the fruit, or else the birds get there first. Bagging it is a must, to get the best quality fruit. given that the birds get 90% of my crop, I don't feel bad about it...
So, you South Islanders, who don't know when you are so lucky as to have such weeds around get, get to it. Comb your local hedgerows, place your breadbags around fat juicy middle bunches. Ignore the outside ones. then come back a few weeks later, when they are lovely, fat and round. 2 large bunches of mine is enough for one large bottle.
Oh yeah. When you bag elderberries, make sure that you shake the bunch out in the chicken run, because you will have at least one tribe of earwig lodgers in that bag, and the hens will just love you that day. Yum. Earwig breakfast.
and hens just love elderberries, but it makes them poo green... :lol: Purple berries = green poo.
The biggest, fattest, ripest fruit is used as extract, in brandy. I fill half a bottle with fruit, fill the rest with brandy, put in cool place, and shake every day until I think, "I've been shaking this a very long time" then I strain it.
Last year, I filled the bottles almost full, and then poured a finished brew onto another lot of berries as an experiment. It ferments, and depending on your bottle, it can explode. The books say not to do it, but you know me...just had to try. I could say, don't do it, but then again, if you are into hooching, then maybe you can make something out of fermented brandy, but I wouldn't have a clue...
I also make an array of things, like elderberry rob which I love..., pontac sauce, elderberry syrup, and I dry some. If you are into hooch, then dried is the way to go.
At the same time, using vodka, I put down a bottle of chinese five spice. I think the recipe for that is in the elderberry file I put somewhere :giggle:but because I love the taste of five spice I just shove in a heap and then shake away.
Chinese five spice is the basic ingredient used in Tamiflu, but I just love the taste. Sigh...
Both these are used for the flu.
I also make Doris Plum and elderberry jam which some people really like on scones... with cream, and coffee. Most of which are no longer on my menu.
So go to it ladies. That's your basic first aid kit for flu, apart from vitamin C, and turmeric.... and possible a few other bits which we can add here.
But right now, it's bed time...
I bag the fruit, or else the birds get there first. Bagging it is a must, to get the best quality fruit. given that the birds get 90% of my crop, I don't feel bad about it...
So, you South Islanders, who don't know when you are so lucky as to have such weeds around get, get to it. Comb your local hedgerows, place your breadbags around fat juicy middle bunches. Ignore the outside ones. then come back a few weeks later, when they are lovely, fat and round. 2 large bunches of mine is enough for one large bottle.
Oh yeah. When you bag elderberries, make sure that you shake the bunch out in the chicken run, because you will have at least one tribe of earwig lodgers in that bag, and the hens will just love you that day. Yum. Earwig breakfast.
and hens just love elderberries, but it makes them poo green... :lol: Purple berries = green poo.
The biggest, fattest, ripest fruit is used as extract, in brandy. I fill half a bottle with fruit, fill the rest with brandy, put in cool place, and shake every day until I think, "I've been shaking this a very long time" then I strain it.
Last year, I filled the bottles almost full, and then poured a finished brew onto another lot of berries as an experiment. It ferments, and depending on your bottle, it can explode. The books say not to do it, but you know me...just had to try. I could say, don't do it, but then again, if you are into hooching, then maybe you can make something out of fermented brandy, but I wouldn't have a clue...
I also make an array of things, like elderberry rob which I love..., pontac sauce, elderberry syrup, and I dry some. If you are into hooch, then dried is the way to go.
At the same time, using vodka, I put down a bottle of chinese five spice. I think the recipe for that is in the elderberry file I put somewhere :giggle:but because I love the taste of five spice I just shove in a heap and then shake away.
Chinese five spice is the basic ingredient used in Tamiflu, but I just love the taste. Sigh...
Both these are used for the flu.
I also make Doris Plum and elderberry jam which some people really like on scones... with cream, and coffee. Most of which are no longer on my menu.
So go to it ladies. That's your basic first aid kit for flu, apart from vitamin C, and turmeric.... and possible a few other bits which we can add here.
But right now, it's bed time...