Here's a link to a website with a lot of excellent advice about making elderberry wines:
Paul
Here's a link to a website with a lot of excellent advice about making elderberry wines:
Paul
I thought elderberries were smelly. I remember from the movie Monty Python's Holy Grail, "Your mother was a hamster, and your father ....smelt ...of elderberries."
I know that is not an intelligent comment.
I always wondered about that reference. Maybe it a reference that dad was into the elderberry wine too frequently? I use elderberries to improve my Concord grape wine; 20% elderberries adds a lot of complexity and depth to the taste and tones down the foxiness. I also make a melomel with elderberries and honey, which I call Dragon's Blood because of the deep color.
Paul
'Foxy' is a descriptor of wines which taste strongly of the grape source, especially Concord. It is not a complement, although these wines can be very tasty.
Cheers, Ken
I always thought it was a high falutin' way of saying his father was a drunk!
Picked 20lbs of elderberries along the roads around here last year and made five gallons of decent wine, btw. But cleaning them is a PITA!
Ryan
Elderberry wine was once well known as an old ladies drink.
In the very funny play "Arsenic and Old Lace" two little old ladies use poisoned elderberry wine to put lonely men out of their misery.
Paul
Over my first several years of picking elderberries I tried different methods to speed up the cleaning process. My comb-and-hardware-cloth method works fairly well; it's described at:
Also, check the Cracked Cork website I referenced above; they have a page on harvesting and cleaning techniques.
I just ordered some elderberries from Raintree Nurseries, on variety with golden berries and the other with powder blue berries. Details at:
Paul
Ah ha! Wikipedia says,
"The berries are a very valuable food resource for many birds....The crushed foliage and immature fruit have a strong fetid smell."
I've got a question. I have several wild elderberries growing here. I have read that some are poisonous. How do you know if they are poisonous or not?
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