Hunting season in Oregon coincides with the best time for berry harvesting.
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| Fresh picked wild berries: raspberry (with stems), variety of gooseberry (purple), huckleberry (medium round reds), and bunchberry (orange looking smaller ones) |
During my 2022 early season hunting trip in September, we gathered two baskets full of wild elderberries.
Like last year, I gathered them to make jam. We cut bunches from five or six different trees along a back forest road near Mackenzie River that I now refer to as Elderberry Row. The trees were medium-sized about eight feet tall each. Elderberry trees can grow rather large and abundant with tiny purple, red, black, or blue berries. These produced a blue-purple berry.
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| Elderberry bunches cut from stems of branch |
Using a knife, I cut each bunch (within reach) off near the end of its thicker hanging limb, leaving the highest bunches for the birds. My collection sat in the baskets in the cool part of my SUV (in back near trunk hatch) for two days while I finished my hunt, then ripened another day on my counter at home before I began processing them for jam. In other words, I left the berries on their stems to ripen for three days, but that was partially out of necessity. I was unable to return home until later that week. They kept fine in their bundles during that time.
Elderberries should never be frozen raw. Either jam them or eat when picked.
Some people may be sensitive to wild elderberry juice. Consume with caution.
Preparing the Workspace
Clear a table or counter space. Remove any obstructions and wipe down the surface with a disinfectant. Processing these berries may require several bowls, a colander, a trash/compost bin, running water, jars with lids, a stainless steel pot, a long spoon, and a hand towel (at minimum). Have a large enough pot clean and ready on the stove top to hold the rinsed and de-stemmed berries. Because berries have a tendency to stain clothing, I recommend wearing an apron or dark shirt.
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| Large canning pot for boiling jars |
Sanitize enough jars, lids, and rims to fit what you estimate the mixture to produce. However full your pot is with all the berries destined to be cooked in it, the resulting jam will be half that volume or less. So if my pot has two quarts of berries in it, once I've reduced the mixture, I will have at most one quart of actual jam. Sanitize an extra jar or two more than you think you'll need. It sucks having to scramble another jar clean with your berry mix waiting in the pot because you ran out of clean jars.
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| Sanitized jars and lids |
Any utensils you plan to use to stir or scoop the berry mixture should also be sanitized. I used a glass measuring jar and plastic 1/4 cup measuring scoop.
The best way to sanitize your supplies is to submerge them in boiling water for at least 20 minutes. Some dishwashers have a sanitizing cycle you could use. Or you can use a no-fuss sanitizing powder, like this one.
Removing the Berries
Separating the berries from their tangle of stems is easier than it looks. The thin network of stems closest to the berries are soft but hold those berries tight.
First, clip or break off any leaves. Notice that the leaves occupy a unique pair of stems separate from the ones that produce the berries, making it relatively easy to pull off all the leaves without having to dig through the network of berries.
Next, visually inspect the bunch for any large debris (twigs, webs, stray leaves). Remove as able. Then, holding the limb in one hand, use the fingers of your other hand to pull downward on the berries so they fall into your colander. A few gentle tugs should pry them loose and into a colander or bowl for further cleaning.
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| Leafy stems and berries separated from main limb |
If you're lucky, you've gathered bunches that have a plethora of large, ripe berries, very little if any debris or dried seeds still on the stems, and the berries fall with a few light tugs. If the pickings were slim, you'll have tiny berries that are mostly shriveled or green and the rest were already picked off by wildlife. Choose wisely what is worth your time and effort to process. Chances are you'll end up with a mix of bunches, some better than others. I have had a couple of bunches that only yielded five quality berries on the whole limb. Sometimes those aren't worth grabbing in the first place. Quality control begins in the field. Be picky about what bunches you cut and keep. There are plenty of other berries; you won't miss a few if they fall on the floor or aren't up to snuff.
Constant Quality Control
I am always performing quality control at every step of the jamming process. If I spot debris or a bad berry, I fish it out and dispose of it. This is the tedious part of jamming wild berries, any berries. You can choose to be as anal as you wish with this. A few little stems or leaf pieces aren't going to ruin your batch, but they should be few and far between.
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| Stray berry with little stem at top center |
The number of good berries should greatly outweigh the number of bad ones. The more unwanted bits you catch now, the less grit in your jam later. Remember, most people have never had wild elderberries nor want to bother to make jam with them. You are representing the wild edible and your own culinary ability by taking the time to make the berry collection clean (assuming you will be sharing your jam with others).
The Ideal Berry
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| Ideal specimen of predominantly plump berries |
A usable quality elderberry is round, plump, and purple, blue, or black with a haze that when wiped away reveals a semi-shiny dark purple color underneath. Discard green berries or shriveled and hardened ones. The berries I harvested are a native Pacific Northwestern variety (Sambucus nigra cerulea).
Cleaning Techniques
There are several techniques you can try to clear away debris (hardened berries, exposed seeds, leaves, stems) from the berries you actually want. Here are a few that work for me, and feel free to use more than one of these:
Rinse On Vine Technique - Spray the berry bunch with a shower stream of cold water from your kitchen sink faucet. Debris and loose berries (usually shriveled and dried) will fall off this way. It will also cleanse away any black, powdery residue from being in the elements.
Gentle Shake Technique - Holding the bunch over the sink or refuse bin, jiggle the berries gently so debris can fall. Berries that dried to be little more than seeds on the stems may fall off this way too because they tend to have looser connections than the plump berries.
Spot Check Technique - Visually inspect the bunch before plucking the berries. Tweeze off (with your fingers) any seed or berry that doesn't meet your quality standard.
Bowl Bath Technique - Place a small batch of de-stemmed berries in a bowl and fill the bowl with cold water. Swirl the berries around with your finger or utensil. Drain the bowl using a handheld strainer. Repeat as needed until water runs clear. Though not 100% accurate, the bath will also float the debris and hardened berries, leaving the plumper ones to sink on the bottom.
Colander Straining Technique - With a few handfuls of plucked berries in a colander at a time, agitate the collection under a stream of cold water, letting the dry seeds and thin stems fall through the holes of the colander. Use a colander with holes small enough to hold the plump berries but large enough to let dry seeds and tiny stems fall through.
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| Bowl Bath Technique |
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| Colander Straining Technique |
Cooking the Berries
First things first, splash in just enough water to coat the bottom of your cooking pot. Add in your rinsed and debrided berries.
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| Pot on stove with wild elderberries and mixed wild berries |
Now, squish the berries with your hands to help them release their juices. Really get in there and crush. Don't worry if you can't get every berry popped, the heat will accomplish the rest. Next, squeeze in about 1 tsp of lemon juice per 1/2 gallon of berries (estimated) or 1 lb of fruit. I don't use store-bought pectin because it has never worked for me. Acidic fruit has its own natural pectin, so I add lemon just in case the berries don't have enough. Pectin helps it gel, but you can get a fine jam consistency by reducing, reducing, reducing, and adding corn starch at the end. This has brought me the best success, so this is what I will teach.
[Note that this is jam not jelly. Jelly would require more moisture be retained and more pectin to cooperate.]
Stir in honey and/or sugar (I use raw sugar with the molasses intact) to sweeten the mixture. Even the sweetest berries will benefit from a little added sweetener. Amounts to add will vary depending on the size of your batch, the tartness of your berry, and your personal preference. My father is diabetic, so I make my berries with natural sweeteners. For this batch, I think I mixed in about a cup of honey and sugar combined. (You can tell my measurements are very technical. I am a "go-by-feel-and-taste" kind of cook.)
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| Berry mixture part-way through boiling process |
Turn on the heat to medium-high and cook uncovered until the mixture is boiling. Lower the heat to medium and simmer at a light boil --stirring occasionally-- for about two hours or until you can scrape your spoon along the bottom of the pot and see the silver of the metal. My mother and grandmother used to tell me about this spoon scrape technique and I never understood it until I finally made a batch of jam that thickened enough to be called 'jam'. Scraping your stirring spoon (mine is wooden and flat-tipped) along the bottom will part the mixture like the Red Sea. When the mixture is thick enough to retain its shape, you'll be able to see the bottom of the pot for a split second. If you never see the bottom, the mixture is probably still too runny and needs to reduce more. If you scrape your spoon and forever see the bottom of the pan, your mixture might be overdone. Reduction is the key for jam and it took me several failed batches to figure that out.
Once the mixture passes the spoon scrape test, it is ready for corn starch to ensure it thickens in the jars. Sift about a tablespoon of corn starch per quart of mixture into the pot before jarring. Stir as you sift. You should start to feel it thickening. Use your discretion and feel it out if you think it needs more or less thickening agent.
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| I'm using a tea brewer as a sifter. |
Recipe Ingredients
Here is the final ingredient readout for my jam:
INGREDIENTS: Wild elderberries, wild raspberries, wild bunchberries, wild huckleberries, wild blueberries, raw sugar, honey, lemon juice, corn starch, salt, water. (Gluten-free)
Jarring the Mixture
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| Loaded jars with lid on and off for fill comparison |
To jar it, you will need a shoveling utensil like a small measuring cup or large spoon and funnel to get the hot mix into the jars. You need to jar it while it's still hot if you don't plan to boil the filled jars. As they cool, the lids will suction down. This is accomplished by either jarring a hot mixture or boiling your jars. For jam, I prefer to jar the hot mixture and skip boiling again. If you want to boil for safety's sake, fill your jars to about a 1/4 inch from the rim. Secure the lids firmly and submerge the fastened jars in your canning pot. Boil for 5-15 minutes (depending on altitude). Let cool in the pot or remove from the water and let them cool on the counter.
Label each jar with its contents and date of processing using a permanent marker. For gifting, you can drape sections of fabric over the lids and fasten them with rubber bands, twine, or ribbon. You can even custom make a sticky label for the front of each jar.
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| These blue cloths were cut from old toddler pants. |
Store the jars in a cool, dry place for up to a year. Follow any canning/jarring recommendations that came with your jars. Consult Guide 7 of the USDA's "Complete Guide to Home Canning" for requirements and safety specifications.
Yield
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| About 1 lb of washed wild elderberries used for jamming |
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| About 8 ounces of unwashed wild berry mix added to mixture to balance flavor profile |
These two bowls of raw berries (above) made five 8-ounce jars of jam (below).
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| Five full jars of jam cool on counter |
Processing Time
Jamming
wild elderberries is no quick task. This batch took me a full day to
process (with meal breaks). I started separating berries from stems at
8am and laid the last jar to cool at 6pm. That's a total (minus breaks)
of about 9 hours. Maintaining your work spaces as you go is important for efficiency. Times may vary.
Flavor Profile
Wild elderberries tend to be a tart berry with a distinctive wild flavor unlike anything you buy in the produce isle at a grocer. Because of its tartness and flavor, rounding out the flavor with other berries is usually recommended, hence why I added handfuls of other wild berries. I happened to find the varieties previously listed while out exploring, and am familiar with identifying, harvesting, and using these types. If you are not, you can use store-bought blueberries to round out your flavor instead.
When finished, my jam is thick, seedy, slightly sweet, and rich with elderberry taste. Can you feel the antioxidants? I spread mine on a piece of toast for my breakfast.
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| Breakfast of turkey bacon, gluten-free toast with elderberry jam, and scrambled eggs |
Kid Interest
How interested is my 11 year old in eating my homemade jam?
My son could live on PB&J sandwiches. Between him and his father, we go through jam faster than toilet paper. But my son is a picky eater. He thinks because it's homemade it won't be as good -- though one could argue the opposite is true. However, when I make him a sandwich or waffle with homemade jam, he doesn't seem to notice. He gobbles it up and moves on.
Uses for Homemade Elderberry Jam
Besides as the obvious toast, sandwich, and waffle topping, elderberry jam is actually great as a meat sauce or on baked goods. We add it to baked biscuits, muffins, poultry and potato dishes, and ice cream.
Additional Resources
Learn more about elderberries from these sources:
I am not an expert in botany, chemistry, mold, or jarring. My knowledge on the content of this post is acquired from personal experience, oral tradition, and study of Pacific Northwest edibles.
Elderberries have been known to cause gastrointestinal distress and poisoning if frozen, processed incorrectly, eaten raw in abundance, or if a sensitivity exists in the consumer. Be cautious.
Thank you for reading!
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