Here in New England, early summer already promised to be an exceptional year for flowers and fruit. Case in point, elderberry.
You see, one morning, while I was out back beside the big bird feeder (aka, squirrel and deer feeder), tossing out some stale bread for the birds, I noticed these tall shrubs with large bunches of tiny white flowers.
Now, I knew that elderberry was “present” in New England but, I’d never really seen it before. Well, maybe I had seen it but I didn’t really know what it looked like. So, naturally, after photographing the flowers, I looked them up in one of my field guides.
Well, I’ve always known that you could make elderberry wine or jelly from the berries but, I didn’t know that you can eat the flowers in pancakes and fritters too. I chose to wait until the berries formed and, maybe, just maybe I’d try my hand at making elderberry wine!
Right, … not so fast! This morning, I decided to check out the berries’ progress and, while I did find a few bunches of berries …
The droplets of water are courtesy of hurricane Hannah.
The vast majority of the “bunches” looked more like this!
Oh well! Truth be told, I’ve never made any wine before nor have I ever tasted elderberry wine. (I am somewhat partial to the sweet or semi-sweet dessert wines, though. Could someone tell me if elderberry wine is a sweet or semi-sweet wine? Maybe it’s neither?) On the other hand, it says in my field guide, that “bark, root, leaves, and unripe berries toxic; said to cause cyanide poisoning, severe diarrhea.” 
I think I’ll pass on the elderberry wine making for now!!! 
I can visualize an elderberry wine party where you serve wild mushrooms you found in the fields near you. “Janet, are these musrooms safe?” “I think so. That was sort of the idea of having you over for the tasting. Judging from that food you served at your barbecue, you have an iron constitution.”
“Well, is the wine safe? “It seems to be, I used it to dissinfect this cut with no ill effects.” Also, it took the oil stain off the garage floor.
How about some dandelion wine to tide us over the winter?
Have we met? When did you eat at one of my barbecues?
I have a friend whose husband used to make wine. That is, until his wife (my friend) ended up in the emergency room with food poisoning … she always wondered if it was really an accident!
Do you make dandelion wine? Can I trust it?
Elderberry wine is my favorite! I am working on my second 5 gallon batch. I have enough berries for two more batches. You can make it sweet or dry as you like. I prefer mine a bit dry.
It looks like the birds got to the elderberries before you did. They can be tough competition for elderberries.
Hello John,
Thanks for visiting my site! I checked out yours too, I’ll definitely be following along on your elderberry project. I wish I had more elderberry plants but then I’d probably just lose more berries to the birds!
I have a bit of a sweet tooth, not quite as bad as my mother’s but, almost. That’s why I prefer the sweet wines. I’m probably not “sipping” the wine properly ’cause just about anything with a “dry” label makes me start coughing!
Again, thanks for your visit. Hope you come back soon.
By the way, what is that writer’s contest link about?
Hi Janet,
As John said, it can be made as sweet or as dry as required. I’ve just started blogging about it.