My Family has made elderberry products through 4 generations. I would say the absolute best thing to make is Elderberry wine, It's a lot like late harvest Riesling. Then elderberry jam, then bread. The best way to separate them from the stems is swish them around in water. Also a few green berries wont hurt you.
Elderberry syrup is incredibly tasty. My grandma always boiled elderberry juice, then put in some sugar. She then used it as a "soup" with semolina balls. It's a delicious dessert! (In German it's called "Fliederbeersuppe", it also looks very pretty.)
We used to pick into a big bucket and dump that into a laundry tub 3/4 full of water. (To wash out the spiders and dirt) pick out each head and rub off the black berries into another bowl. Easy-peasy. If a few green berries would have hurt, I'd be dead, along with everyone I knew. We were kids that were barely out of the depression. Elderberries grew wild (abundantly! and were ripe from June to frost, because they kept coming.)
If you end up ever doing this again, the "popping the berries off" step is made a helluva lot easier by freezing the inflorescence first. Each berry gets solid like a bb and the stems become more brittle.
When you cut an elder tree traditionally you are supposed to ask it "old girl, give me some of your wood and when I become a tree, you can have some of mine". Otherwise the spirit of the tree will git you or something :P
Same, though I have to be very careful because it promotes TNF and I'm on TNF inhibitors. So I only use it when the benefit outweighs the harm, such as influenza.
I love Elderberry-Juice, especially mixed with apple juice. Also the elderflower can be made into a great syrup, or you coat them with pancake dough and fry them - very nice!
They were mentioned in Monty Python "Your mother is a hamster and your father smells of elderberry". Because it was generally used to make an alcoholic drink
@@lynth it’s multi layered but the taunt essentially was saying his mother was a whore (hamsters have lots of babies) and his father was a drunkard (elderberry wine being distinctly low brow and un-fancy French to boot)
We used to pick this by the lug boxes full. Pick them off and cook them. add sugar and we had gallons of elderberry juice. Nobody ever became ill. The cooking made it taste better and sugar helped a lot too.
My chickens love my black elderberries. We have a native blue elderberry around here, can't say I've ever tasted them. The good thing about cyanide is that it is quickly metabolized so you need a larger single dose to do harm, many small doses over time will not build up. Also cooking tends to denature the cyanide in many foods, raw bamboo shoots for example will produce hydrogen cyanide when in contact with stomach acid but not after cooking.
Oh, you got the black ones, they are good, and spring time you shall try the blooms. Honestly, I never been aware of the harm effect of the black elder/ Sambucus nigra/, but there is no question about the red species/Sambucus racemosa/; in my childhood we used to have it for a weird celebration to save the farm animals against sickness. It was an absolute insane ritual. But I always liked the jam, syrup from it, and my elders made wine, and liquor both from the berries and the blooms. The sort of dessert, such as crepes or beer battered blooms were tasty treats in springtime. I think, some pagan tradition has magic related properties with elder, but the I believe the wands were rather made from sloe bush wood. Indeed the magic in the elder is the sound it can be created by it when one makes the six holes flute. Actually I have some of them from the old country. The local, here in Alaska is the red, and only edible with cooking, it is abundant and my chickens pick them gingerly. It has a lot of medical benefits, and I clearly remember for the rest of my life, for one treatment I got for my inflamed tonsils. Gam boiled some black elder berries in a fresh mare milk with honey and after that I was done for ever and a day. The combination was swift and effective and because the smell of the berries, taste of honey I did not pass out, neither gag. So you guys have in that area Hawthorns? Elder, Hawthorns, Blackthorn (sloe) are the magic bush of the Celts be that in Transylvania, or Ireland. The Elder at some point was the home of the fairies of the forest. Mind me, in the time of Pliny the Elder, the fellow who perished in the Vesuvius eruption, ladies dyed there hair with the berry juice. I would bet, the one you had could be for that, because you mentioned being rather dry which was not what Pliny wrote, or i remember. Both the ancient and I have been using the very juicy kind that can make skin, rather dark. I bet, mint and elder berry with some apple-cider vinegar and water would make the hair darker, and excellent conditioner without harm chemicals. And then again I went off like a rocket, and just have to cut it off or might write a book:)) Though thank you for the inspiration.
Elderberries are very productive. I had an black elderberry shrub that was 12 ft. tall that produced what must have been 40 lbs. of berries one year. Back then I didn't know what to do with them unfortunately. Besides jelly elderberries are supposed to make excellent pancake syrup. Fritters can be made by dipping the flower clusters in batter and frying them.
Old folks say the fruits can make you crazy. We use only flowers after we wash them to ferment with sugar*(1-2kg) 10-12 lemons using small ammounts of yeast, in a huge jar filled with water, it is mixed well at start. After 5 days of fermentation result is a soda juice refreshing small alchool content that is incredible good.
I love elderberry tea when I have a cold, with a little honey. Not sure if it has much over any other tea for soothing a cold but it is nice and comforting.
We get this growing wild in most lowland areas of Britain. I love eating them off of the elder trees in the late summer. You can also turn the blossom, elderflower, into a cordial for drinking. People. Make elderberries into a wine.
We had these growing in our yard when I was a kid I remember my dad repeatedly warning me only eat the black ones. Back then of course I didn't really know why but I do remember checking each one to be sure before I ate them.
Some types of Elderberries have sweet smelling flowers for making a honey like herb tea that you have to try. The others have white flowers with no smell or taste at all are grown for the larger clumps of berries. That is often the case if you mail order them for your yard.
The more grey/silver bloom (but not mold) there is on them, the more antioxidants. The study your referred to is from Israel. I was told never burn the branches, btw, as that is bad.
Another common plant/tree that grows in the same regions as elderberry is the Sweet Gum tree. There is documented usage of it for preventing and treating influenza
There are a few varieties (actually, species) of Elderberry and while one of the more common is edible, some are not The two most common types of elderberry plants are the European elderberry (Sambucus nigra) and the American elderberry (Sambucus canadensis). Sambucus canadensis, a subspecies of Sambucus nigra, can be found in almost any state in the lower 48 United States. all of the Nigra MUST be cooked. There is also a red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa), which is similar to the American species but with one important difference. The brilliant berries it produces are poisonous.
Elderberries grow wild in the area where I grew up and currently live so I have never seen them as truly "weird" more of a curiosity really. My family always regarded them as a quasi-medicinal, (or as part of black Sambuca liquer - my personal favorite) or something that one of my uncles would occasionally make wine with. Glad to see some of these wild edibles of my childhood enjoying a renaissance. Fun video , interesting as always Jared. - Out of curiosity, any advice for someone interested in venturing into uploading videos of their own? (I would ask this via Direct message, but .. I honestly don't think RUclips's has that working correctly lol)
+izonker Weirdness is very relative. Part of what fuels these adventures for me is learning what is ordinary for a different community but is unknown from where I am from. Worldwide its drastically different, but even when you look at it state by state in the US, there is such a difference in what is considered normal. In the past few months I've seen pawpaws in Ohio, Hedge apples in Iowa and Huckleberries in MT ask me two years ago what these were and I wouldn't have known but everyone in these states knows them well. I'm not a good example for making a popular channel. I think that if you want to upload videos you should do it because you enjoy doing something and want to share your experiences. Not because you want subscribers, views, likes or money. There are so many channels out there, that you may have to wait years before yours gets any kind of following, but if you are doing it for fun then it won't matter either way.
Jared Rydelek Oh, believe me, I know Weirdness is relative, I have quite a few relatives who are plenty "weird" despite their assertions to the contrary :P As for uploading, I am doing it because it scares the crap out of me to do it because I have always avoided that side of a camera. I want to do it to overcome some personal obstacles. I just don't want to come across like a total hack -seeing as I AV class was a pretty different creature back when I was in HS and I've spent the last 6 years or so beneath a relatively heavy rock technologically speaking, I need to get familiar with editing at least on a rudimentary level.
Jared Rydelek Oh, and if you are ever in the Pacific Northwest from about Fort Bragg up through Washington and you have the opportunity to try Salmonberries and Cloudberries as part of a foraging trip, I highly recommend it. They are a relative of Raspberries and Blackberries but have a unique and delicate flavor with a striking appearance looking very much like clusters of salmon eggs. Just a tip for Weird fruit found over here in this side of the coast. Oh.. and do you ever get scheduled for performances in the states? Vegas., Reno or California ? Sorry, not asking for your personal schedule, and I apologize if that came across as stalker-y as it was not intended that way but I would honestly love to catch a performance and I don't see ,myself travelling to the Near, Middle. or Far East of Asia anytime in the next.. remaining 4 or 5 decades I plan on living lol.
@@WeirdExplorer elderberries always look tasty and grow wild all over the place in southern UK, its the flowers that are more popular though made into elderflower cordials.
Over here in Germany people use them a lot to make jelly, juices and lemonade out of them. There are also some comercial products you can buy at most grocery stores. Also the flowers are used to make tea out of them. Commonly is is drank to help with the cold. But the flowers have a nice, mild taste to them, so they are also used to make jelly and lemonade (which are also sold comercially). Also there is is a recipe, where the flowers are pushed into a pancake (look up "elderflower pancake" or the german name "Hollunnderblütenpfannkuchen" on google). I really liked those as a kid.
The stems interconnecting the flowers/berrys are actually eaten in a lot of cases btw. I never heard of someone getting sick because of it. More commonnly you will get stomach aches and diarrhea if you eat to many of the raw berrys.
If I ever found an elderberry bush in the spring(/summer) the flowers would go towards elderberry wine. If I ever found enough bushes than I would try the berry juice as well. I grew up- a relative term- in southwest UK and there were elderberry bushes everywhere.
I haven't found black elderberries, but have found red ones in Oregon along the coast mountain range. I cooked them to make a jam and burnt it a little making it taste and smell like burnt tires. It was bad, but they were pretty tasty fresh. Luckily the body of healthy people breaks down cyanide very well. I have eaten many foods that contain it and have never had any ill effects from it.
You can order Elderberry bushes however it is bread for larger berry production. The flowers however are insipid (tasteless). It is a different genetic bush that you have to get for the Elder blow that has the wonderful smell and produces one of the best herb teas. But it is sold at any health food store anyway.
"elderberry juice" is pretty popular among the things that people would make with foraged plant material over here (it's not something you'd find at a store but most people have a grandma or know someone who'll provide them with elderberry syrup). but we always use the flowers and never the berry for this.
I have these plants in my garden in my country is considered a poisonous fruit . In autumn i will try these fruits ty so much man ! you have my sustain !!
Maybe do one about rowan berries: they are very high in vitamin C but some people think they are poisonous, perhaps because of the tart/bitter flavour. Some trees produce sweeter and juicier berries - go for the one that birds favour. They make really nice juice and jam, not as hard work as elderberries and no need to worry getting poisoned - but watch out for bugs!
Sparkling wine sounds delicious! Do you mean using the flowers? Or the berries? Elderberry wine sounds like a great idea for turning a large amount of berries into a product that can be stored for some time, and consumed during the year.
@@SY-ok2dq no, the flowers. I don’t know if you can make a sparkling wine out of the berries. Possibly? An elderberry wine should be possible. You can even make wine out of cherries.
@@UsernamesForDummies Making wine or drinks out of flowers isn't something that would occur to me. Even though I know that camomile flowers are made into an herbal infusion or "tea" (which I don't find to be very tasty but it's alright - I figure you drink it for the health benefits, not the taste), it's just not something most people think of, since flowers are rarely eaten in modern culture, and they're not available on grocery store shelves. I'm wondering what kind of taste elderflowers could possibly have 🤔 Nasturtium flowers, along with the leaves, are edible and taste like peppery greens. I've seen candied violets (entire plant is edible - don't know about the taste though) used as edible cake decorations. Same goes for rose petals.
@@SY-ok2dq The taste is wonderful! Very perfume-y and flowery, but delicate, not like lavender. Not peppery at all. It is hard to describe. I don’t know where you live, but if it is in the US, I’m sure you could find Elderflower Cordial (syrup) that you only need to mix with water. You can also put a little bit into Prosecco or Champagne to make a beautiful cocktail. I live in Switzerland and the UK and can find it without problems. Otherwise, if you’re really interested, there’s always Google and online shops…
We had them in the area I grew up in, but they were uncommon enough where I'd get excited when I found them. Glad I never ate any unripe ones, I hadn't known about the cyanide
love these, grew up picking them wild in the summers with gramps in upstate new york. :-) gram made jelly and wine. in england i had some elder flower wine :-)
Great video Jared. I'm wondering if you were thinking of doing a video on Aronia, chokeberry as opposed to chokecherry? I've tried it before and think it's worth a shot. :)
+Ben Bishop I'd like to! I was in Iowa where Aronias are common and went hunting for them but unfortunately they weren't in season... going to keep an eye out for them in the future for sure.
+Jared Rydelek Mine had different fruit ripening at different times throughout a few months. Birds might get to them before you though. I also recommend trying black nightshade berries (solanum americanum) They taste like tomatoes mixed with black raspberry. Some people think they are deadly which isn't true, doing a video might help give them some better PR! Haha
Thanks for mentioning my foraging tours. For more info, please visit www.wildmanstevebrill.com, where I also have an elderberry page. Here's some more info: It's the elderberry flowers (which are also edible) that have been shown to be helpful for the flu, not the berries, as far as I know. I find elderberries excellent in pancakes and muffins. Cooked, the flavor is strong and very pleasant, and the seeds become crunchy. Except for requiring a sweetener, you can use them like raisins in recipes where they're cooked. It's true that separating the berries from the stems is labor-intensive, but this is compensated with the ease of collecting them. You can break off lots of clusters in a few minutes. Many other berries take a long time to pick. Also this species is common elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, common in the NE. There are other species in other regions, with some overlap.
+Steve Brill Thanks for the additional info. I'm curious about cooking them whole in pancakes/muffins, I'll try that next time. This is probably my favorite fruit from your tours.
+Jared Rydelek If you really want them, they're just West of the entrance admission booth of the parking lot of Belmont Lake State Park in N. Babylon. They were mostly unripe 3 weekends ago, so they should be ripe now. Since not enough people signed up for today's Inwood Hill Park tour, I'm going to schedule a tour in Belmont 2 days after Thanksgiving in 2016. There are hundreds of bushes in Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, and it's likely that a few late-ripening bushes could be in fruit there now too.
I ate elderberries on a childhood exploring trip with my uncle in Alum Rock Park in California... I liked them, and that started me as a local forager... Didn't know about the cyanide!
Here in sweden its really popular to make juice out of the flower and its soooo delicious (like a concentrate, we call it "saft" and i guess it falls into juice as a category). But then again it migth be a diffrent species of elderberry.
Use a fork... (i use a steam juicer and use the whole with Stem. Then i make a Sirup, with 1:1 sugar, for cold days. Do a Tiny little Sirup into a cup an fill it with boiling water, Yummy)
Snaple, mango madness has elderberry in it. I always thought that is what gave its unique flavor? Are you getting that with you cooked batch? If you know what i mean?
It is time to make an updated video on Elderberries. Interest has grown for Elderberries since SARS and Coivd, university research papers from around the world are being published almost daily. To learn more; see what the Universities of Missouri And California have published on Elderberries. Also see the Midwest Elderberries Coop's web page for the latest Elderberry information and great links to learn more. Yes, Elderberries are not worth eating raw or just cook. However, when cooked [to degrade and make safe the cyanide compounds and sterilize for storage] and sugar and lemon juice is add to get a good 'sugar/acid', their great Elderberry flavor comes out! Elderberry in used for jelly, flavorings, food colorings, wine and even pies. Bon Appétit ~ We now anticipation your great new Elderberry video! Bon Apite'
IKEA sells an "elder flower" drink. Do you know if this is derived from the same plant as elderberries (the flowers as opposed to the berries, I would guess)?
You to try the blossoms of the Elderberry tree. Here they are used in jams, pies and especially in drinks. You can also batter and fry them but I haven't tried them this way.
In the final scene, we get the human brain on the shelf on the left, and the Candid Press cover on the right, headlined "Headless Lesbians Attack World". I can be diverted by the elderberry demonstration but these two objects are far more intriguing.
To me elderberries have a really odd flavour I personally don't like them much raw. When they are cooked on the other hand that is a different story my favourite thing to do with them is to make elderberry wine also known as "fairy wine" it's really tasty.
To neutralize the poison in the berry, you need to boil them for 20 min, also the black ones...but then thy are very delicious and healthy. Ind Europe they are very common and you can buy elderberry juice in the stores and drink it ase juice or make elderberry soup.
Sorry to hear that. But thank you for clearing up the dangers of the berries themselves. Most sources I've been looking at mention the dangers of the other plant parts, but not that the berries alone can make you sick.
I know this is a few years old, but I know people who really go out of their way to collect elderberries locally for a winter cough syrup. I have even seen some people who collect them to make a syrup for teas and flavoring other things. (united states)
My Grandmother used to make Elderberry Pie. Made one once. Verrry seedy and a real pain to clean as you need quite a lot for a pie. Juice stains. But the pie was delicious. Also, if you find a bush, watch it closely or the birds will get the ripe ones first.
The "headless lesbians attack world" newspaper? It's been there for the more recent episodes. I used to film on the other side of my apartment because there's more light, but for some reason my cat complains more when I go over there.
Celia, in case you did not get the information yet, the American species of elderberry grows wild at least as far north as southern Vermont and New Hampshire.
Depends on which species you're after. In the northwest one sees red elderberries (Sambucus racemosa) all over the place - roadsides and damp areas especially. They are less edible than the blue elderberries that are found more often on the other side of the Cascades - one definitely needs to cook the red before eating in any quantity.
Maybe elderberries have become more noxious in modern times. In the 1940's and 1950's everyone made elderberry jelly, some made elderberry pie (it wasn't nearly as good as blackberry pie), some made elder flower wine, and we made deep fried elder flowers. We'd hold them by the stem, and eat the deep fried flower heads. Maybe God takes care of kids and fools, but none of us ever got sick eating any of these things. You can pick a years worth of berries for jelly in about 20 minutes. It takes 10x that much time to pick wild blackberries for the same amount of jelly.
Got a bottle of elderberry wine in West Virginia. It had a warning label that it was not to be takent out of state. No explanation. It was okay fruit wine, not really special.
Those elderberries haven't properly ripen, the stem has to turn red, the elderberries will be black, really black, probably shiny too, they taste sweet and somewhat like blackberries or blueberries, still poisonous if you eat too much, the jam made from them is really tasty, but also recommended not to eat too much might cause some people to feel nausea
So it makes me wonder how on earth they actually ate them back in the day before sugar from India and before someone worked out you could boil beats and add calcium hydroxide and filter to get rid of all the crap from it and turn it to sugar water :P Maybe honey, but I don't imagine they'd have anywhere near as much honey as fruits from this thing...
You failed to mention the elderberry flower. The umbrel of awesomely fragrant flowers that precede the berries can be dipped in Aunt Jemima pancake batter and fried in oil to make a wonderful fritter. In the heat the flowers will separate from the central stem and stay in the fritter to make a wonderful treat. And by the way, I don't give a damn if Aunt Jemima is suddenly politically incorrect, because that's one of the craziest and stupidest things I've ever heard. Long live sweet old Aunt Jemima in all her kerchiefed and aproned glory! Try the fritters.
Iknow.. THERE s this guy named raven and hes making this juice right.. now... hes a cool guy... hes FROM Germany.. i have a crush on him.. LOL ANYWAYS yea ... i want to make SOME one day... 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
Yeah, the berries of this shrub is so bland and not worth the work. Not a fruit techincally, but elderflowers (the blossoms) are much more tasty and sought after. Pretty common to transform it into cordials or St Germain liqueur.
Definition of 'savory', look at the last one. 'Savory' works just fine.. Savory- having savor: such as a : piquantly pleasant to the minda savory triumph b : morally exemplary : EDIFYING… scandals don't make very savory reading.- Green Peyton c : pleasing to the sense of taste or smell especially by reason of effective seasoninga savory dinnerthe savory smells wafting from the kitchen d : having a spicy or salty quality without sweetnessan assortment of both sweet and savory appetizers e : being, inducing, or marked by the rich or meaty taste sensation of umamisavory flavors
Your intro is like a vintage PBS documentary. Which isn’t bad.
I actually really like that aspect about his videos.
Kasey Ray
Yeah I really like it
I fucking hate it!
feels like M*A*S*H to me
He should have a PBS show
My Family has made elderberry products through 4 generations. I would say the absolute best thing to make is Elderberry wine, It's a lot like late harvest Riesling. Then elderberry jam, then bread.
The best way to separate them from the stems is swish them around in water. Also a few green berries wont hurt you.
I know this was like a year ago but is it a jam(made with fruit) or a Jelly(made with juice/syrup)? Any recipes?
4th generation elderberry processor eh? That's quite the niche you have for yourself. Don't ruin it
Elderberry syrup is incredibly tasty. My grandma always boiled elderberry juice, then put in some sugar. She then used it as a "soup" with semolina balls. It's a delicious dessert! (In German it's called "Fliederbeersuppe", it also looks very pretty.)
We used to pick into a big bucket and dump that into a laundry tub 3/4 full of water. (To wash out the spiders and dirt) pick out each head and rub off the black berries into another bowl. Easy-peasy. If a few green berries would have hurt, I'd be dead, along with everyone I knew. We were kids that were barely out of the depression. Elderberries grew wild (abundantly! and were ripe from June to frost, because they kept coming.)
I love elderberry preserves, soda and syrup
If you end up ever doing this again, the "popping the berries off" step is made a helluva lot easier by freezing the inflorescence first. Each berry gets solid like a bb and the stems become more brittle.
great tip, thanks
No prob
I collect these every year. They are very earthy tasting, and they make a nice jelly. Use a fork to remove them from the umbellifer.
Ilike your show.. on fruits around the world man.. cool guy you are... good job..
When you cut an elder tree traditionally you are supposed to ask it "old girl, give me some of your wood and when I become a tree, you can have some of mine". Otherwise the spirit of the tree will git you or something :P
My grandmother use to make elderberry jam and elderberry cobbler when I was a child but I do remember it tasting very good.
Oh man.. that sounds good
Find her recipe! And please share.
I still make elderberry syrup. It's great for coughs and sore throats.
I also have elderberry Syrup and tincture
Same, though I have to be very careful because it promotes TNF and I'm on TNF inhibitors. So I only use it when the benefit outweighs the harm, such as influenza.
I love Elderberry-Juice, especially mixed with apple juice. Also the elderflower can be made into a great syrup, or you coat them with pancake dough and fry them - very nice!
I know, right? I love the flavor of elderberries and elderflowers. I wonder if he got a bad batch.
Elderflowers, deep fried, are delicious! I've eaten them since the 1940's, and I'm ok. Everyone I know eats them, if they're not too lazy to go pick.
They were mentioned in Monty Python
"Your mother is a hamster and your father smells of elderberry". Because it was generally used to make an alcoholic drink
+Gothemo95 I love Monty Python. That's a fun fact I can get behind.
I don't think the insult is based on it being alcoholic. Elderberries actually do have an unpleasant smell to them, similar to a wet dog.
@@lynth it’s multi layered but the taunt essentially was saying his mother was a whore (hamsters have lots of babies) and his father was a drunkard (elderberry wine being distinctly low brow and un-fancy French to boot)
We used to pick this by the lug boxes full. Pick them off and cook them. add sugar and we had gallons of elderberry juice. Nobody ever became ill. The cooking made it taste better and sugar helped a lot too.
Me, too. I could pick enough in 20 minutes for a years worth of jelly It tasted like the mixed fruit jelly you buy in the store.
Fill up the elderberry juice with apple juice and add sparkling water - this is awesome
Weird Explorer back on the grind, eating more cyanide.
My chickens love my black elderberries. We have a native blue elderberry around here, can't say I've ever tasted them. The good thing about cyanide is that it is quickly metabolized so you need a larger single dose to do harm, many small doses over time will not build up. Also cooking tends to denature the cyanide in many foods, raw bamboo shoots for example will produce hydrogen cyanide when in contact with stomach acid but not after cooking.
Oh, you got the black ones, they are good, and spring time you shall try the blooms. Honestly, I never been aware of the harm effect of the black elder/ Sambucus nigra/, but there is no question about the red species/Sambucus racemosa/; in my childhood we used to have it for a weird celebration to save the farm animals against sickness. It was an absolute insane ritual. But I always liked the jam, syrup from it, and my elders made wine, and liquor both from the berries and the blooms. The sort of dessert, such as crepes or beer battered blooms were tasty treats in springtime. I think, some pagan tradition has magic related properties with elder, but the I believe the wands were rather made from sloe bush wood. Indeed the magic in the elder is the sound it can be created by it when one makes the six holes flute. Actually I have some of them from the old country. The local, here in Alaska is the red, and only edible with cooking, it is abundant and my chickens pick them gingerly. It has a lot of medical benefits, and I clearly remember for the rest of my life, for one treatment I got for my inflamed tonsils. Gam boiled some black elder berries in a fresh mare milk with honey and after that I was done for ever and a day. The combination was swift and effective and because the smell of the berries, taste of honey I did not pass out, neither gag. So you guys have in that area Hawthorns? Elder, Hawthorns, Blackthorn (sloe) are the magic bush of the Celts be that in Transylvania, or Ireland. The Elder at some point was the home of the fairies of the forest. Mind me, in the time of Pliny the Elder, the fellow who perished in the Vesuvius eruption, ladies dyed there hair with the berry juice. I would bet, the one you had could be for that, because you mentioned being rather dry which was not what Pliny wrote, or i remember. Both the ancient and I have been using the very juicy kind that can make skin, rather dark. I bet, mint and elder berry with some apple-cider vinegar and water would make the hair darker, and excellent conditioner without harm chemicals. And then again I went off like a rocket, and just have to cut it off or might write a book:)) Though thank you for the inspiration.
Red ones are the ones most people cannot eat raw. Some people do tolerate the red ones raw, but being so tiny you need to pick a *lot* to have any...
Elderberries are very productive. I had an black elderberry shrub that was 12 ft. tall that produced what must have been 40 lbs. of berries one year. Back then I didn't know what to do with them unfortunately. Besides jelly elderberries are supposed to make excellent pancake syrup. Fritters can be made by dipping the flower clusters in batter and frying them.
The white flower clusters those elderberries develop from also make a very nice cordial, flowwery in a good way! k
Is Vegetarian but has Preserved Brain and human skull on shelf.... I absolutely love it.
I noticed that, too!
Well, cannibalism doesn't count...
This intro music instantly remained me of M*A*S*H!!!!
Old folks say the fruits can make you crazy.
We use only flowers after we wash them to ferment with sugar*(1-2kg) 10-12 lemons using small ammounts of yeast, in a huge jar filled with water, it is mixed well at start.
After 5 days of fermentation result is a soda juice refreshing small alchool content that is incredible good.
Elder wood is light and filled with pith that runs down the middle. It was traditionally used to make wind instruments.
I love elderberry tea when I have a cold, with a little honey. Not sure if it has much over any other tea for soothing a cold but it is nice and comforting.
We get this growing wild in most lowland areas of Britain. I love eating them off of the elder trees in the late summer.
You can also turn the blossom, elderflower, into a cordial for drinking. People. Make elderberries into a wine.
We had these growing in our yard when I was a kid I remember my dad repeatedly warning me only eat the black ones. Back then of course I didn't really know why but I do remember checking each one to be sure before I ate them.
I've had awful flu and started taking this and been better in like 2 days.
Some types of Elderberries have sweet smelling flowers for making a honey like herb tea that you have to try. The others have white flowers with no smell or taste at all are grown for the larger clumps of berries. That is often the case if you mail order them for your yard.
Yep! In a later episode I review the flowers and a juice made from them.
The more grey/silver bloom (but not mold) there is on them, the more antioxidants. The study your referred to is from Israel. I was told never burn the branches, btw, as that is bad.
Another common plant/tree that grows in the same regions as elderberry is the Sweet Gum tree. There is documented usage of it for preventing and treating influenza
There are a few varieties (actually, species) of Elderberry
and while one of the more common is edible,
some are not
The two most common types of elderberry plants are the European elderberry (Sambucus nigra) and the American elderberry (Sambucus canadensis).
Sambucus canadensis, a subspecies of Sambucus nigra, can be found in almost any state in the lower 48 United States.
all of the Nigra MUST be cooked.
There is also a red elderberry (Sambucus racemosa), which is similar to the American species but with one important difference. The brilliant berries it produces are poisonous.
Ah! A very important warning to foragers. Thanks
How can you tell between species? I have eaten uncooked elderberries in Europe and not got even stomach ache.
I wonder that too, my grandmother died before she passed that knowledge to me :/
Elderberries grow wild in the area where I grew up and currently live so I have never seen them as truly "weird" more of a curiosity really. My family always regarded them as a quasi-medicinal, (or as part of black Sambuca liquer - my personal favorite) or something that one of my uncles would occasionally make wine with. Glad to see some of these wild edibles of my childhood enjoying a renaissance. Fun video , interesting as always Jared. - Out of curiosity, any advice for someone interested in venturing into uploading videos of their own? (I would ask this via Direct message, but .. I honestly don't think RUclips's has that working correctly lol)
+izonker Weirdness is very relative. Part of what fuels these adventures for me is learning what is ordinary for a different community but is unknown from where I am from. Worldwide its drastically different, but even when you look at it state by state in the US, there is such a difference in what is considered normal. In the past few months I've seen pawpaws in Ohio, Hedge apples in Iowa and Huckleberries in MT ask me two years ago what these were and I wouldn't have known but everyone in these states knows them well.
I'm not a good example for making a popular channel. I think that if you want to upload videos you should do it because you enjoy doing something and want to share your experiences. Not because you want subscribers, views, likes or money. There are so many channels out there, that you may have to wait years before yours gets any kind of following, but if you are doing it for fun then it won't matter either way.
Jared Rydelek Oh, believe me, I know Weirdness is relative, I have quite a few relatives who are plenty "weird" despite their assertions to the contrary :P As for uploading, I am doing it because it scares the crap out of me to do it because I have always avoided that side of a camera. I want to do it to overcome some personal obstacles. I just don't want to come across like a total hack -seeing as I AV class was a pretty different creature back when I was in HS and I've spent the last 6 years or so beneath a relatively heavy rock technologically speaking, I need to get familiar with editing at least on a rudimentary level.
Jared Rydelek Oh, and if you are ever in the Pacific Northwest from about Fort Bragg up through Washington and you have the opportunity to try Salmonberries and Cloudberries as part of a foraging trip, I highly recommend it. They are a relative of Raspberries and Blackberries but have a unique and delicate flavor with a striking appearance looking very much like clusters of salmon eggs. Just a tip for Weird fruit found over here in this side of the coast.
Oh.. and do you ever get scheduled for performances in the states? Vegas., Reno or California ? Sorry, not asking for your personal schedule, and I apologize if that came across as stalker-y as it was not intended that way but I would honestly love to catch a performance and I don't see ,myself travelling to the Near, Middle. or Far East of Asia anytime in the next.. remaining 4 or 5 decades I plan on living lol.
@@WeirdExplorer elderberries always look tasty and grow wild all over the place in southern UK, its the flowers that are more popular though made into elderflower cordials.
Great video it made me want to walk around my house and pick the wild elderberries that are ripe and make some juice.
Over here in Germany people use them a lot to make jelly, juices and lemonade out of them. There are also some comercial products you can buy at most grocery stores.
Also the flowers are used to make tea out of them. Commonly is is drank to help with the cold. But the flowers have a nice, mild taste to them, so they are also used to make jelly and lemonade (which are also sold comercially).
Also there is is a recipe, where the flowers are pushed into a pancake (look up "elderflower pancake" or the german name "Hollunnderblütenpfannkuchen" on google). I really liked those as a kid.
The stems interconnecting the flowers/berrys are actually eaten in a lot of cases btw. I never heard of someone getting sick because of it. More commonnly you will get stomach aches and diarrhea if you eat to many of the raw berrys.
If I ever found an elderberry bush in the spring(/summer) the flowers would go towards elderberry wine. If I ever found enough bushes than I would try the berry juice as well. I grew up- a relative term- in southwest UK and there were elderberry bushes everywhere.
I haven't found black elderberries, but have found red ones in Oregon along the coast mountain range. I cooked them to make a jam and burnt it a little making it taste and smell like burnt tires. It was bad, but they were pretty tasty fresh. Luckily the body of healthy people breaks down cyanide very well. I have eaten many foods that contain it and have never had any ill effects from it.
You can order Elderberry bushes however it is bread for larger berry production. The flowers however are insipid (tasteless). It is a different genetic bush that you have to get for the Elder blow that has the wonderful smell and produces one of the best herb teas. But it is sold at any health food store anyway.
This one was useful. Elderberries grow wild down here
"elderberry juice" is pretty popular among the things that people would make with foraged plant material over here (it's not something you'd find at a store but most people have a grandma or know someone who'll provide them with elderberry syrup). but we always use the flowers and never the berry for this.
We sometimes make jam from them if you wait for the stalks to be bright red you can just shake the berries into a bucket from the tree.
My mother made jelly and wine from them every year when I was growing up. I was not old enough for the wine, but loved the jelly!!
Grandma's wild elderberry jam was so good!!!!!
Between those berries & the poke berries, bird poop is very colorful in the south in early fall/ late summer!
There's this variety of Fanta from the Balkans called "Shokata." It's elderberry-lemon flavor and it's amazing
Never had the berries but elderflower is one of the best tasting lemonades you can have.
I have these plants in my garden in my country is considered a poisonous fruit . In autumn i will try these fruits ty so much man ! you have my sustain !!
+Andresoiu Ionut With Elderberries flowers u can make a good juice with lemons
+Andresoiu Ionut I've had the juice, it has a nice flavor. The berries are even better though in my opinion :)
I always wanted to try the wine because of the old ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace...
Maybe do one about rowan berries: they are very high in vitamin C but some people think they are poisonous, perhaps because of the tart/bitter flavour. Some trees produce sweeter and juicier berries - go for the one that birds favour. They make really nice juice and jam, not as hard work as elderberries and no need to worry getting poisoned - but watch out for bugs!
You can use the flowers for cordials and even make a sparkling wine out of them. Delicious!
Sparkling wine sounds delicious! Do you mean using the flowers? Or the berries? Elderberry wine sounds like a great idea for turning a large amount of berries into a product that can be stored for some time, and consumed during the year.
@@SY-ok2dq no, the flowers. I don’t know if you can make a sparkling wine out of the berries. Possibly? An elderberry wine should be possible. You can even make wine out of cherries.
@@UsernamesForDummies Making wine or drinks out of flowers isn't something that would occur to me. Even though I know that camomile flowers are made into an herbal infusion or "tea" (which I don't find to be very tasty but it's alright - I figure you drink it for the health benefits, not the taste), it's just not something most people think of, since flowers are rarely eaten in modern culture, and they're not available on grocery store shelves.
I'm wondering what kind of taste elderflowers could possibly have 🤔 Nasturtium flowers, along with the leaves, are edible and taste like peppery greens.
I've seen candied violets (entire plant is edible - don't know about the taste though) used as edible cake decorations. Same goes for rose petals.
@@SY-ok2dq The taste is wonderful! Very perfume-y and flowery, but delicate, not like lavender. Not peppery at all. It is hard to describe. I don’t know where you live, but if it is in the US, I’m sure you could find Elderflower Cordial (syrup) that you only need to mix with water. You can also put a little bit into Prosecco or Champagne to make a beautiful cocktail. I live in Switzerland and the UK and can find it without problems. Otherwise, if you’re really interested, there’s always Google and online shops…
I'm actually allergic to elderberries, we found out when I was a kid and a cereal I ate had dried elderberries in it.
We had them in the area I grew up in, but they were uncommon enough where I'd get excited when I found them. Glad I never ate any unripe ones, I hadn't known about the cyanide
Made Elder jelly and didn't die .Wonderful color.
I am very much a fan of elderflower cordial. I now have some seeds so hopefully there will be elderberries in my future ;)
love these, grew up picking them wild in the summers with gramps in upstate new york. :-) gram made jelly and wine. in england i had some elder flower wine :-)
Great video Jared. I'm wondering if you were thinking of doing a video on Aronia, chokeberry as opposed to chokecherry? I've tried it before and think it's worth a shot. :)
+Ben Bishop I'd like to! I was in Iowa where Aronias are common and went hunting for them but unfortunately they weren't in season... going to keep an eye out for them in the future for sure.
+Jared Rydelek Mine had different fruit ripening at different times throughout a few months. Birds might get to them before you though. I also recommend trying black nightshade berries (solanum americanum) They taste like tomatoes mixed with black raspberry. Some people think they are deadly which isn't true, doing a video might help give them some better PR! Haha
Thanks for mentioning my foraging tours. For more info, please visit www.wildmanstevebrill.com, where I also have an elderberry page. Here's some more info:
It's the elderberry flowers (which are also edible) that have been shown to be helpful for the flu, not the berries, as far as I know.
I find elderberries excellent in pancakes and muffins. Cooked, the flavor is strong and very pleasant, and the seeds become crunchy. Except for requiring a sweetener, you can use them like raisins in recipes where they're cooked.
It's true that separating the berries from the stems is labor-intensive, but this is compensated with the ease of collecting them. You can break off lots of clusters in a few minutes. Many other berries take a long time to pick.
Also this species is common elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, common in the NE. There are other species in other regions, with some overlap.
+Steve Brill Thanks for the additional info. I'm curious about cooking them whole in pancakes/muffins, I'll try that next time. This is probably my favorite fruit from your tours.
Have you had American persimmons or autumn olives yet?
I've had American Persimmons, but not autumn olives.
+Jared Rydelek If you really want them, they're just West of the entrance admission booth of the parking lot of Belmont Lake State Park in N. Babylon. They were mostly unripe 3 weekends ago, so they should be ripe now. Since not enough people signed up for today's Inwood Hill Park tour, I'm going to schedule a tour in Belmont 2 days after Thanksgiving in 2016.
There are hundreds of bushes in Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn, and it's likely that a few late-ripening bushes could be in fruit there now too.
Great! I'll try and take a trip out that way. Thanks for the tip!
I ate elderberries on a childhood exploring trip with my uncle in Alum Rock Park in California... I liked them, and that started me as a local forager... Didn't know about the cyanide!
Birds love to eat them, so if you want to attract birds to your yard plant some elderberries. They're good in pies too.
Here in sweden its really popular to make juice out of the flower and its soooo delicious (like a concentrate, we call it "saft" and i guess it falls into juice as a category).
But then again it migth be a diffrent species of elderberry.
Video: detailed explanation and process
Me: You have a cat!!!!!!
Use a fork... (i use a steam juicer and use the whole with Stem. Then i make a Sirup, with 1:1 sugar, for cold days. Do a Tiny little Sirup into a cup an fill it with boiling water, Yummy)
Snaple, mango madness has elderberry in it. I always thought that is what gave its unique flavor? Are you getting that with you cooked batch? If you know what i mean?
+keghn feem I've never had that snapple.
My grandfather told me that his mother used to make elderberry wine but from the flowers not the berries.
Yep can be done, the flowers are used to make juices and wines. good stuff.
Sorry to comment on such an old video, but what song is in your intro? New viewer, love your videos.
If you freeze them first they come right off
I grow these myself!
It is time to make an updated video on Elderberries. Interest has grown for Elderberries since SARS and Coivd, university research papers from around the world are being published almost daily. To learn more; see what the Universities of Missouri And California have published on Elderberries. Also see the Midwest Elderberries Coop's web page for the latest Elderberry information and great links to learn more. Yes, Elderberries are not worth eating raw or just cook. However, when cooked [to degrade and make safe the cyanide compounds and sterilize for storage] and sugar and lemon juice is add to get a good 'sugar/acid', their great Elderberry flavor comes out! Elderberry in used for jelly, flavorings, food colorings, wine and even pies. Bon Appétit ~ We now anticipation your great new Elderberry video!
Bon Apite'
IKEA sells an "elder flower" drink. Do you know if this is derived from the same plant as elderberries (the flowers as opposed to the berries, I would guess)?
+Gary Cooper yep, same plant. I haven't had the fresh flowers, but the ikea juice is pretty good.
The flowers are almost better. We eat them all the time.
Pull berries off with a fork. I add them to strawberry jam, makes it much, much better in flavor!
the most i do with elder flower is make elder flower cordial
Have you ever given fresh Schisandra berries a try? The dried berries are excellent but I have no idea how to get a hold of some fresh ones.
You to try the blossoms of the Elderberry tree. Here they are used in jams, pies and especially in drinks. You can also batter and fry them but I haven't tried them this way.
i'd like to try that some time
Jeremy Schuller I try to make elderflower cordial every year, it's really good!
In the final scene, we get the human brain on the shelf on the left, and the Candid Press cover on the right, headlined "Headless Lesbians Attack World". I can be diverted by the elderberry demonstration but these two objects are far more intriguing.
To me elderberries have a really odd flavour I personally don't like them much raw. When they are cooked on the other hand that is a different story my favourite thing to do with them is to make elderberry wine also known as "fairy wine" it's really tasty.
What's with the blood curdling scream at the end!?! Darn near dropped my phone! 😅
oops. the music is from a horror movie soundtrack
@@WeirdExplorer lol got it~ No harm just not exspected in a fruit tasting video.
To neutralize the poison in the berry, you need to boil them for 20 min, also the black ones...but then thy are very delicious and healthy. Ind Europe they are very common and you can buy elderberry juice in the stores and drink it ase juice or make elderberry soup.
I got elderberry poisoning, around ten years ago.
I had no energy the next day, after eating few uncooked berries
of blue and dark blue.
Sorry to hear that. But thank you for clearing up the dangers of the berries themselves. Most sources I've been looking at mention the dangers of the other plant parts, but not that the berries alone can make you sick.
I know this is a few years old, but I know people who really go out of their way to collect elderberries locally for a winter cough syrup. I have even seen some people who collect them to make a syrup for teas and flavoring other things. (united states)
I love the intro song, what is it called?
My Grandmother used to make Elderberry Pie. Made one once. Verrry seedy and a real pain to clean as you need quite a lot for a pie. Juice stains. But the pie was delicious. Also, if you find a bush, watch it closely or the birds will get the ripe ones first.
That sounds wonderful
the flavor is excellent in syrup.
The Mountain Rose Herbs blog recipe for syrup is what I use, and one uses like, a tablespoon of syrup for a serving.
for your at home videos, is that picture always a part of the background? i JUST noticed it and it is amazing.
The "headless lesbians attack world" newspaper? It's been there for the more recent episodes. I used to film on the other side of my apartment because there's more light, but for some reason my cat complains more when I go over there.
+Jared Rydelek yeah. it's awesome.
+Jen Perry thanks
+Jared Rydelek Is that a brain in the jar on the shelf behind your head in this video?
hah, shows what my eyes are drawn to
where can I find elderberries?n be grown in the north? they are very good for health & illnesses. high in vitamin C, antioxidents.
+Celia Younger Depends where you live. The dried ones are easily found online. for foraging you may have luck with fallingfruit.org
north east USA. Thank you.
Celia, in case you did not get the information yet, the American species of elderberry grows wild at least as far north as southern Vermont and New Hampshire.
Depends on which species you're after. In the northwest one sees red elderberries (Sambucus racemosa) all over the place - roadsides and damp areas especially. They are less edible than the blue elderberries that are found more often on the other side of the Cascades - one definitely needs to cook the red before eating in any quantity.
Maybe elderberries have become more noxious in modern times. In the 1940's and 1950's everyone made elderberry jelly, some made elderberry pie (it wasn't nearly as good as blackberry pie), some made elder flower wine,
and we made deep fried elder flowers. We'd hold them by the stem, and eat the deep fried flower heads. Maybe God takes care of kids and fools, but none of us ever got sick eating any of these things. You can pick a years worth of berries for jelly in about 20 minutes. It takes 10x that much time to pick wild blackberries for the same amount of jelly.
Got a bottle of elderberry wine in West Virginia. It had a warning label that it was not to be takent out of state. No explanation. It was okay fruit wine, not really special.
Those unripe ones are very sour too.
Those elderberries haven't properly ripen, the stem has to turn red, the elderberries will be black, really black, probably shiny too, they taste sweet and somewhat like blackberries or blueberries, still poisonous if you eat too much, the jam made from them is really tasty, but also recommended not to eat too much might cause some people to feel nausea
So it makes me wonder how on earth they actually ate them back in the day before sugar from India and before someone worked out you could boil beats and add calcium hydroxide and filter to get rid of all the crap from it and turn it to sugar water :P Maybe honey, but I don't imagine they'd have anywhere near as much honey as fruits from this thing...
You failed to mention the elderberry flower. The umbrel of awesomely fragrant flowers that precede the berries can be dipped in Aunt Jemima pancake batter and fried in oil to make a wonderful fritter. In the heat the flowers will separate from the central stem and stay in the fritter to make a wonderful treat. And by the way, I don't give a damn if Aunt Jemima is suddenly politically incorrect, because that's one of the craziest and stupidest things I've ever heard. Long live sweet old Aunt Jemima in all her kerchiefed and aproned glory! Try the fritters.
Iknow.. THERE s this guy named raven and hes making this juice right.. now... hes a cool guy... hes FROM Germany.. i have a crush on him.. LOL ANYWAYS yea ... i want to make SOME one day... 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
i watch all these videos on double speed.
👍👍👍
I think elderberry sauce is supposed to be quite nice on red meat.
Yeah, the berries of this shrub is so bland and not worth the work. Not a fruit techincally, but elderflowers (the blossoms) are much more tasty and sought after. Pretty common to transform it into cordials or St Germain liqueur.
You can kind of 'comb' them off the branches with a fork
the term you were looking for might be "umami" (sp?) to describe that savory component
Definition of 'savory', look at the last one. 'Savory' works just fine..
Savory-
having savor: such as
a : piquantly pleasant to the minda savory triumph
b : morally exemplary : EDIFYING… scandals don't make very savory reading.- Green Peyton
c : pleasing to the sense of taste or smell especially by reason of effective seasoninga savory dinnerthe savory smells wafting from the kitchen
d : having a spicy or salty quality without sweetnessan assortment of both sweet and savory appetizers
e : being, inducing, or marked by the rich or meaty taste sensation of umamisavory flavors
13:10 why is there screaming
Use a fork to pluck the stems.
candid press headless lesbians. please, tell us more.
Dunno about it ever being cultivated, but it's a hardy weed. And the leaves smell like stale piss, but without the ammonia.
We Have Red Versions Of It And At First I Was Like What The He** Is This Weed?