de-stemming elderberries

Aug 30, 2007 3 Replies

Came up with a pretty good way to de stem those little ederberries. After a few weekends of trial and error the process below is what I came up with. Probabally this was discovered before, so I'm not applying for a patent, just figured I'd share :)


- when picking the clusters pull off large stalks



- put all clusters into a large container or bucket



- cover with cold water by several inches



- leave for an hour. This makes the bugs float up to the top and maybe softens the stems.



- wash off the bugs



- reach in and gently grab a double handfull of stems.



- gently roll them like a pizza dough, the berries fall back into the water. Don't press too hard you'll smash to many berries.



- repeat until all/most berries are destemed



- in the bucket/container the ripe berries will sink and the unripe will float for the most part



- scoop off the floating berries with a strainer



- drain off water for the remaining berries



good luck with dem berries, hap



Hap,

Good idea. I comb them off the bush then sift through hardware cloth. Details at:

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Paul

Paul:

The shield shaped bug on your site is commonly called a stink bug. Nasty little things. Don't get them excited, just let them leave!

Steve Oregon

I didn't know the yellow stuff came from the stems. I've got some froze with some stems, might give the hardware cloth trick a shot with them frozen. Yea ditto on the stink bugs. Don't kill them, nasty.

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