For the first time this year I have currants and elderberries. Will you share with me any good recipes to use these? Also, are they good raw? Thank you.

-- R (thor610@yahoo.com), June 15, 2000

Answers

The elder blossoms can be dried and used to stop a cold before it gets started. You can juice the berries and mix with grape juice to make jelly or make elderberry jelly-I think the mixed juice is much better. The recipe for that would be in the pectin box or canning book. I tried making a crisp with them once-not a good idea. I made currant jelly a long time ago. It was delicious. You can make wine with them. They can be dried. Both of them take awhile to take off the stem. I use a fork or comb to "comb" them off. I'll look forward to seeing what other do with them. If you can't find something to do with them, you can always send them to me, esp. the currants. Enjoy!!

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), June 15, 2000.

i miss my currents. they make the best jelly. i live in new hampshire now and they are a forbidden friut up here. now i buy them dried and use them for anything that calls for raisons in baking. yummmmmm. laura

-- laura cavallari (ladygoat13@aol.com), June 15, 2000.

If you have never made wine or pie from elderberries, you just haven't lived. Recipes for both are everywhere. Just make sure that your yeast has been in refrigerated storage. Another caution. If you make wine be very careful to NOT GET ANY STEMS IN THE MUST! I have made this wine for years and one year I got in a hurry and got careless and did not do such a good job of getting the berries off of the stems. Sick? You wouldn't believe it! Feels like your stomach is trying to turn inside out. Here in the South, the elderbrries are going to be ripe in about 5 weeks. Can't wait. Good,luck, John

-- John and Pat James (jjames@n-jcenter.com), June 15, 2000.

RED CURRANT JELLY

2 1/2 qts. red currants 1 c. water 4 c. sugar

Sort, wash and crush currants without removing stems. Place in kettle and add water. Bring quickly to a boil over high heat. Lower heat, simmer 10 min. Let drip through jelly bag. Measure juice. There should be 4 c. Stir in sugar. Boil until jellying point is reached. Remove from heat, skim foam quickly.

Pour into sterilized hot jars to 1/2 inch of jar top.

-- Laurie (SUPERGS63@AOL.COM), June 16, 2000.

Elderberry jelly by itself has a musky taste that we find unpleasant. However, mixed with apple juice to make jelly, it's wonderful. I've also mixed elderberry with pin cherry, but apple is better. And add a teaspoon of lemon juice to the batch for clarity and liveliness. Someday I'm going to try to make wine.

-- Peg (NW WI) (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), June 16, 2000.

Here's a tip on elderberries that has worked for me. Since all I wanted was the juice for making elderberry mead and a batch of elderberry jelly, I didn't try to separate the individual berries from their tiny stems. Instead, I just removed the large main stems, then put the berries in a garbage bag in the freezer. After they were frozen solid, I squeezed them out in my press, adding pressure as they thawed, until all the juice was extracted. This seemed to work very well. (I'll let you know in a year if the mead was worth the effort.)

-- Rog (flanders@probe.net), June 17, 2000.

Rog, Be careful. I got into trouble with the elderberry stems the first time I used a press. Before that, I put the berries in a tub and walked on them (or the kids did). Apparently the press is better at getting the juice out of EVERYTHING in the bucket than your feet are. Makes sense. The feet don't exert anywhere near the force that the press does. Anyhow, it really hurt (nearly as much as the stomach ache) to pour out gallons of bad wine. Take care, John

-- John and Pat James (jjames@n-jcenter.com), June 17, 2000.

Laura, Why are currents forbidden in New Hampshire?

-- Cathy Horn (hrnofplnty@webtv.net), June 18, 2000.

They supposedly are a host to the white pine blister rust, which damages valuable timber trees. Most states outlawed them and tried to exterminate them back before WWII, but most have since reconsidered. My grandmother talks about the CCC coming to her house to pull out her gooseberry and current ("ribes") bushes. She told them over her dead body, and they backed down. I live in NH, too. My property has red, white, and black currents, and about 5 kinds of gooseberries. There are wild ribes all around, too. Our white pines look as healthy as any. It's your duty to disobey foolish laws - plant gooseberries and currants!! Thoreau would be proud of your civil disobedience.

-- Brad (Rodent@worldpath.net), June 19, 2000.

How about elderberry flower fritters??? I have a recipe to make something between 7-up and champagne with the flowers .... but I guess if you've got berries already you won't be needing this recipe this year... BUT (just can't resist!) it is basically a few flower with a lot of sugar and lemons left in the sun for a day or a week ( depends how strong your sun is) and then bottled and left for 2 weeks ...usually some bottles explode so be careful where you store it . I have an exact recipe at home if anyone wants it.

-- kelly (kellytree@hotmail.com), June 20, 2000.

I have a recipe for elderberry wine that is out of this world at two years old!!!!! if interested, e-mail me. you won't be sorry.

-- Larry Collins (collins@cmsinter.net), April 01, 2002.