2014 Elderberries

[Julie]

I have them growing in my backyard but I can never get any, the birds nail everyone every year but the ones on our camp road are never touched by the birds for some reason. I can let them go until they are very ripe and then pick. The bushes are very big and I normally will get about 30 pounds of berries. I, also, get some from school property.

Stressbaby, maybe try and look around and see if there are other areas you can pick from.

 

[ffemt128]

Here's what I picked yesterday. There are 7 1/2 bags there .

 

[Stressbaby]

Thanks Julie. On a tip, I called a neighbor who generously took me to a source he knows and helped me pick. These look pretty good and haven't been eaten by the birds. I'm guessing I've got about 10# here. I just ran out of Wal-mart bags. Saturday I hope to come home with that much again.

Next question: I've used a fork to pull the berries off, but sometimes the 1/4" little stems come off with the berries. Do I need to worry about those?

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

Dont ever use a fork again! Check out our elderberry webpage we made to promote elderberries, lots of people contributed their ways of harvesting elderberries and sorting out the stems and unripe berries. A baking cooling rack is very easy to put over a bucket and scrape the berries off, then fill the bucket with cold water, the ripe berries are heavier than water because they are sweet and sink, the unripe are lighter than water and float off mostly. WVMJ

 

[Julie]

another method and this is one I like to use is freeze the berries first.

 

[ffemt128]

I take the following approach. I fill 2 buckets with cold water. Berries go from bag to bucket 1. From bucket 1 I hold cluster in one hand and fan my fingers through the berries. It's easier if they are wet as your hands dont get red and the water acts as a lube somewhat. Berries off the cluster into 2nd bucket. When bucket is full, I scoop with a strainer, rinse then into gallon ziplock bags. If the bag is completely full you will have between 5 1/2 - 6 lbs of berries in your bag. It may not be the fastest method, but it works for me without damaging the berries. Jack does have a great Elderberry Site. My 58 lbs took me about 3 1/2 hours to clean by myself and that was breaking for dinner and wine..

Based on what you picked there it looks like you should have about 15lbs depending on the floaters which get tossed for me.

 

[Stressbaby]

Thanks Jack, Julie, and Doug for your replies.

 

[Stressbaby]

12# 11oz. Going back Saturday for more.
What are the thoughts on the "second run dry rose" Keller describes here: https://winemakermag.com/841-elderberry-wine
Is three days enough time for the first batch before removing the skins?

 

[Julie]

I believe I posted a recipe on here about making elderberry and making a 2nd run. Yes three days is plenty of time. Well I just looked and no it is not posted. But I use at least 4 #'s per gallon, sg around 1.080, TA around .80% (taste to see if that is where you like it) pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient, strain berries after three days, give a slight press, then make another batch again but add 6 cans of Welch's white grape juice.

 

[spunk]

Wow that's a lot of berries well I'm done. My stake I planted was literally a stick in a pot last spring then transplanted that fall. I was happy iy produced. Not much I almost filled a pint jar. I have it in freezer sorted and waiting to do something with maybe add it to something else other fruit but I was still happy wasn't expecting anything this year also the black lace fruit doesn't seem to ripen it stays hard n green juice I am NOT going to use it I'll just enjoy it 4 beds work often in the spring

 

[ffemt128]

Riding home yesterday it would appear the birds are doing a pretty good number on the bushes by the roadway that I did not pick from over the weekend. It could be interesting to see what is left come Saturday or Sunday...

 

[ffemt128]

I made a trip down to pick this am. I managed to get 6 very full bags this am. Im guessing close to 40 lbs based on what I picked last Sunday. I may get one more round out of this location depending on the birds. Tomorrow I will hit my location I've picked from the past 3 years.

 

[Julie]

nice haul, Doug. I'm still waiting for ours to get ripe.

 

[ffemt128]

Thanks Julie. This fall I need to trim the original location back to get rid of the older non producing canes.

 

[ffemt128]

Since I'm working on the house the berries are resting in the refridgerator until I can clean them after dinner.

 

[ffemt128]

The total for today's harvest is 48lbs 1 oz...total for the season with the 2 lbs from last year 108.4 lbs.

 

[Stressbaby]

Nice!
We picked up another 26# yesterday bring us to around 40# for the year. I think we're done.

 

[ffemt128]

I just ran up and chdck the one location near my house. Birds got a fair amount of it and the remaining berries look to be drying up. Will pick at the same place I did yesterday next weekend if birds dont get to them first

 

[ffemt128]

I'm already looking up my old recipes for the Elderberry. Turns out the Gold Medal Elderberry was made with 7 lbs per gallon of berries but then blended with a 3 gallon batch made from about 35 lbs of skins. I have 108 lbs of berries. We'll see what I get in the way of straight juice and go from there. I will definately be making a 2nd's batch from the skins as I did 2 years ago. It was good for topping up and such. My 20 gallon brute arrived yesterday so I'll be making the juice batch as one large batch then separating after initial fermentation into carboys or maybe if I have enough put it in one of the Demi-Johns for extended aging...

I'll post up recipe once I get this started...

 

[Stressbaby]

What is the color/style of the second run batch using the skins? I did that last year to make what the recipe termed an "elderberry rose," but you used more than double the amount of skins in the second run.