Elderberry problems

[simchah]

Bushes have a bumper crop of elderberries on them this year. I have had dreams of harvesting, juicing them (had seen it mentioned on someones website), making huge master batch of elderberry syrup, and then canning it. That way this coming year all I would need to do to get a fresh batch was grab a new jar and open (as opposed to cooking up a new batch each time I need it like I have been doing). With those lovely thoughts floating in my head I got out early this morning and picked till the five gallon bucket was nearly overflowing. It didn't make a dent in what was on the bushes so I happily hurried in to clean them as quickly as I could so I could get another round picked........reality started to try to get my attention about three hours into the cleaning when I had gotten less than half of the bucket done. After 6+ hours of getting rid of squash bugs, spiders, spider webs, and other junk I had between a gallon and a gallon and a half of berries and my wrist is threatening to to take action if I persist in such activities. But I was happy, the hard part was done, now I just needed to run the whole thing through the juicer and it should be straightforward from there. Right. The juicer, I have learned, is obviously NOT made to handle anything very small and very juicy. I did get some juice out but not nearly what I had hoped and then it was getting backed up. Take juicer apart to find out that it was full of juicy pulp all over everything. So I take it all apart and stick the dripping pulp in a strainer to, hopefully, get some more juice out while I take the juicer all apart and clean it. By now most the family is in bed and I still have about a gallon of berries sitting on the counter but inspiration hit again. The pulp reminded me of the food mill, I wasn't sure the holes would be small enough but I am getting desperate and decide to give it a try. At least it is an improvement on the juicer but the thick pulpy juice I get from it puts me in mind of making jelly. Elderberry jelly starts sounding really good since at least I would have a process I know would work but the kids are not found of things that are very sweet and lining them up for a spoonful of jelly in the morning just sounds wrong. So after too many hours and a very purple kitchen I have 3 1/2 quarts of very thick juice to decide how to process and enough elderberries left on the bushes to begin to scare me. (and the wrist is talking loudly to me since I am obviously hard of hearing)

So I thought I should head over here and see if anyone else has been down this road and has some ideas of how to conquer the elderberry issue. I can continue to freeze all the berries and cook them up as needed if nothing else works (prefer to not dehydrate since the options I have for that are very limited). I am not even sure I can water bath the stuff like I was hoping/planning on. 

Can I process the berries faster? (all the methods I have found online don't seem like workable options for the level of cleaning these need) Can I make a huge batch of syrup and can it? What is the best method of getting the juice extracted? (bonus points if it does not involve turning me and the kitchen purple)

[saysfaa]

My family used a Swedish juicer (net search pictures- it looks like Mahu Liisa) for smallish-scale commercial production of juice and jelly.
My dad like to experiment - do NOT mix it half and half with cherry juice.
I usually use the concentrated juice for myself and kids. We don't reconstitute it. We take a spoonful straight. It does taste better mixed half and half with something but we don't find it worth the bother. I like the jelly too. I'm quite sure they water bathed canning but can ask within a day or too whether that was just jelly or if it is juice also.

Oh, I forgot the cleaning. If i remember right, freezing is pretty much essential, they would freeze them even if they used them asap.

[grammagrace]

How much stem do you leave on the berries? I use scissors to cut the berries off the bigger stems for jelly or syrup I put them in a pan with a bit of water and cook til they "look" right. I have just them two ways. One is dump them into a pan lined with a floursack dish towel and then twist it and squeeze the juice out. Im left with nothing in the towel but stems and seeds. The other way is the cone chaped juicer and the wooden rod to mash the juice out. I prefer the dish towel method. Even if I end up with purple hands. Much easier to clean a dish towel than the other gadget.

[simchah]

Jul 22, 2020 1:16:25 GMT -5 grammagrace said:

How much stem do you leave on the berries? I use scissors to cut the berries off the bigger stems for jelly or syrup I put them in a pan with a bit of water and cook til they "look" right. I have just them two ways. One is dump them into a pan lined with a floursack dish towel and then twist it and squeeze the juice out. Im left with nothing in the towel but stems and seeds. The other way is the cone chaped juicer and the wooden rod to mash the juice out. I prefer the dish towel method. Even if I end up with purple hands. Much easier to clean a dish towel than the other gadget.

I have been trying to take off all the stem that I can. I wasn't sure it was safe to cook any of the stem pieces so I have been cutting off the bigger pieces, washing really well and removing the berries off the smaller pieces.

I use floursack towels for just about any and everything so I have plenty of those. Do you squeeze with your hands or just hang to get all the juice out?

[simchah]

Jul 22, 2020 0:28:24 GMT -5 saysfaa said:

My family used a Swedish juicer (net search pictures- it looks like Mahu Liisa) for smallish-scale commercial production of juice and jelly.
My dad like to experiment - do NOT mix it half and half with cherry juice.
I usually use the concentrated juice for myself and kids. We don't reconstitute it. We take a spoonful straight. It does taste better mixed half and half with something but we don't find it worth the bother. I like the jelly too. I'm quite sure they water bathed canning but can ask within a day or too whether that was just jelly or if it is juice also.

Oh, I forgot the cleaning. If i remember right, freezing is pretty much essential, they would freeze them even if they used them asap.

I normally cook mine with some cinnamon sticks, cloves, and ginger. Then when cooled some add raw honey. Other than that I like it not cut with anything else.

Why is freezing necessary? I understand why cooking is needed but have not heard freezing was needed.

[saysfaa]

Freezing isn't necessary to make jam. It is necessary to efficiently separate the brachets, shells, chaff, and other debis from the usable fruit without making a huge mess (and losing a lot of the juice in the process).

[simchah]

Jul 22, 2020 7:46:06 GMT -5 saysfaa said:

Freezing isn't necessary to make jam. It is necessary to efficiently separate the brachets, shells, chaff, and other debis from the usable fruit without making a huge mess (and losing a lot of the juice in the process).

Do you prep them in any way before freezing? Trim them into smaller clumps, wash them off? Do you leave them in a large bowl or spread out on cookie sheets? (knowing me, I would create a monstrous mess by doing it the wrong way)

[lew92]

The way I do it is to freeze them as they are when I take them off the bush. Put in pails or bags, then when they are fully frozen, shake the stem to get the berries to release.

Cook the whole berries with just enough water to get by until the berries start releasing their juices, continue until the berries are all cooked enough to mash easily with a potato masher.

I then strain through a tea towel or piece of sheeting. I hang it at first, but finish by twisting the cloth and pressing the bag into a colander set above my pot of juice. I then add the spices and honey.

I have never had enough to make it worth it to can up but freeze it in approximately 12 oz plastic soda bottles. I see no reason you can't can it, though. I'm sure there are instructions out there somewhere.

Elderberry Syrup. This thread has a lot of good ideas and I have used the recipe that DanMa posted. I recently bought some dried elderberries and will try out the method for making elderberry tincture.

But, when my newly planted elderberry bushes are producing, I will make syrup again.

[simchah]

Jul 22, 2020 8:51:17 GMT -5 lew92 said:

The way I do it is to freeze them as they are when I take them off the bush. Put in pails or bags, then when they are fully frozen, shake the stem to get the berries to release.

Cook the whole berries with just enough water to get by until the berries start releasing their juices, continue until the berries are all cooked enough to mash easily with a potato masher.

I then strain through a tea towel or piece of sheeting. I hang it at first, but finish by twisting the cloth and pressing the bag into a colander set above my pot of juice. I then add the spices and honey.

I have never had enough to make it worth it to can up but freeze it in approximately 12 oz plastic soda bottles. I see no reason you can't can it, though. I'm sure there are instructions out there somewhere.

Elderberry Syrup. This thread has a lot of good ideas and I have used the recipe that DanMa posted. I recently bought some dried elderberries and will try out the method for making elderberry tincture.

But, when my newly planted elderberry bushes are producing, I will make syrup again.

Thanks for the link, his recipe is close to what I have used for years. I started with dried berries, then when my bushes started producing I froze the berries and used them. Yesterday I harvested about the same amount that I got off the bushes for the entire season and barely put a dent in the crop which is why I am exploring other options. The thread you pointed me to had mixed opinions on the wisdom of canning so maybe I should just freeze the juice.

[lew92]

But do freeze the berries - they come off the stem SO easily that way!

[saysfaa]

Yes, freeze as is, the less you handle them before putting them in the freezer, the better because it is better if they don't fall out of the brachettes until after they are frozen. But you don't need to be too hung up about it; you can take the structures apart enough to get them into the bags. I think they used plastic grocery bags or something similar. Definitely dont wash first.

[rosalind]

If it was my kitchen with that many elderberries, I'd be soaking them in water and straining to see what kind of wool dye I could get.

I don't get many, so last year just dried what we got and the berries come off easily then. I make an oxymel- elderberry with honey and ACV.

Ours aren't even close to ready, but cherries are and about the time we got done pitting a batch, I looked up and the entire wall of my kitchen was sprayed red. Whoops!

[simchah]

Jul 22, 2020 10:21:25 GMT -5 rosalind said:

If it was my kitchen with that many elderberries, I'd be soaking them in water and straining to see what kind of wool dye I could get.

I don't get many, so last year just dried what we got and the berries come off easily then. I make an oxymel- elderberry with honey and ACV.

Ours aren't even close to ready, but cherries are and about the time we got done pitting a batch, I looked up and the entire wall of my kitchen was sprayed red. Whoops!

I was wishing there was a good use for that much purple (turned light blue when diluted). Sadly colors like that do not hold up in soap making. I did not think of wool, too bad you are not closer.

Oxymel. I didn't know there was a work for that mix. I ended up making some last year when I was making a batch of syrup while sick and ended up grabbing the ACV gallon instead of the honey gallon. I didn't realize my mistake until  I had a good glug of ACV in the syrup. It tasted much better than the regular elderberry syrup and I have been tempted to continue my mistake.

[simchah]

I will have to check out the freezer method with a few clusters to see if I can get the hang of it before doing a serious harvesting.

[rosalind]

Ooh, I haven't tried them in soap.

blog.mountainroseherbs.com/herbal-oxymels

Above is where I learned the term oxymel. I don't do well with alcohol based tinctures, so this is a pleasant alternative.

[simchah]

Jul 22, 2020 18:17:23 GMT -5 rosalind said:

Ooh, I haven't tried them in soap.

blog.mountainroseherbs.com/herbal-oxymels

Above is where I learned the term oxymel. I don't do well with alcohol based tinctures, so this is a pleasant alternative.

Anything like this tends to turn brown in soap thanks to lye. Very sad.