Elderberry Jelly

Back when I was a kid, I remember my mom and aunt taking all of us to pick elderberries. Back then there was an abundance of elderberries that grew along a mile stretch of road. The railroad tracks ran parallel to the road so there was about 15-20 feet of space between where the elderberries grew.  Mom would park the car along the road and we would all get out with a recycled ice cream bucket, you know the one with the handle.  We would spend an hour or two picking each berry from those bushes! Looking back those was good times!  Out of all those tiny purple berries we would get four or five jars of elderberry jelly and my aunt would get about the same for her family.  

I went back this past summer to see if there were still elderberry growing wild along this one mile stretch of country road. To my surprise there was a few left that had not been mowed over or gone from spraying.  I was able to clip the bundles of goodness from each branch. I tell ya why didn’t we just clip the bundles of berries back then?  This was a much faster process! 

I got a few clipping from the Wild Elderberry Bushes to get starts from. I had no idea if this would work or not but to my surprise I checked on them the other day and I have new little baby elderberry bushes. I am keeping them in the green house for now through winter. I am pleased to have starts from the bushes I picked from when I was a kid!

Elderberry Jam

INGREDIENTS

3-4 lbs ripe elderberries
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 packet MCP or SureJell pectin*
4 1/2 cups white granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon butter

Instructions

1 Rinse the elderberry clusters: Rinse elderberry clusters thoroughly. I find the easiest way to do this is to put them in the basin of my kitchen sink, and fill it up with water.

2 Strip the elderberries from their stems: Working over a large bowl, work on one small cluster at a time, gently raking your fingers or the tines of a fork across the clusters to dislodge the berries from the stems. Use mostly berries that are completely blue or black. A few underripe green berries are fine; they have more pectin and including them will help the jelly set. You can put the stems of berries in the freezer and they will come off the stem quicker and easier. 
For each batch of jelly, collect 3 lbs of de-stemmed elderberries (about 8 to 10 cups).

3 Put the elderberries in a pot and bring to a simmer: Place berries in a large pot and crush with a potato masher to release some of the juices. Turn the heat to medium and continue to crush as the mixture heats up to a boil.
Once the berries and their juices reach a boil, reduce the heat to low and let the berries simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

4 Strain the juice from the elderberries: Place a large fine-mesh sieve, or 3-4 layers of cheesecloth, over a pot.
Slowly transfer the mashed berries and juice over the sieve to strain the juice out into the pot. Let strain for an hour.

5 Prepare jars for canning: You'll need 5 or 6 8-ounce canning jars and lids. Rinse out the jars and place on a baking sheet, top up, in the oven. Heat for 10 minutes at 200°F to sterilize the jars.

To sterilize the lids, bring a kettle of a couple cups of water to a boil. Place lids in a bowl and pour the boiling water over them.

6 Measure out the juice: You will need 3 cups of juice to make one batch of jelly if using SureJell pectin.**
Any amount more than that you can reserve for making syrup, or add to another batch for jelly.

7 Add elderberry juice, lemon juice, pectin to a large pot, bring to a boil  Place 3 cups of juice into a large, high sided, wide pot (I use an 8-quart). Add the lemon juice and pectin. Bring to a boil on high heat.

8 Add sugar, butter, bring to a boil again: Add 4 1/2 cups sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of butter. Stir with a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil again. Watch the pot as the mixture will foam up considerably. We add the butter since it helps this from happening.  You may need to lower the heat a bit to keep the foam from boiling over the pot.

9 Boil the mixture, then pour into canning jars: As soon as the mixture reaches a rolling boil, watch the clock.  At exactly 2 minutes, remove from heat and pour mixture into canning jars to 1/4-inch from the rim.

10 Secure canning jars with lids: Wipe the rims with a  paper towel. Place lids on jars and rings to secure.

If you want, to ensure a good seal and to protect against mold, you can process the jars in a water bath for 10 minutes.(any harmful bacteria will already be destroyed by the sugar concentration of the jelly),

I use a canning pot. Fill the pot halfway with water (enough to cover jars with an inch or two of water when in the pot), bring to a boil, gently place the jars in the rack and gently lower in to the boiling water, boil for 5 minutes, and remove.
Let cool. As the jelly cools you should hear a popping sound as the lids seal.