Elderberry time in NY! How to explain elderberries for those of you who have never picked and destemmed elderberries......1) LOTS of work 2) LOTS of work and 3) LOTS of work! But it's all worth it in the end, because it makes some very yummy jelly.

Elderberry is just one of our wild fruit trees (more like shrubs) that you and the birds are in competition for as they ripen. I picked a plastic grocery bag full of them (that's the easy part, just snip off the branch) and then sat on the porch for more than 2 hours rolling the berries off the stems. Did I mention they are the size of be be pellets? After 2 hours I filled that colander full of berries and made 3 recipes out of them. Yummy!

And if you ever need dye of the black/purple/blue kind......elderberries are excellent (as you can see by my hand).