Elderberries

 On the Farm and in the Neighborhood...

I really like elderberries!  Each year I love them more!  I know people are crazy about huckleberries but elderberries are flavorful, nutritious, and more abundant.  They can be grown in your yard and they also grow in the wild and are easy to pick!  I can pick a gallon of elderberries in a couple minutes and it usually takes a couple hours to pick that many huckleberries.  We have 2 elderberry bushes on the farm.  They are loaded with flowers in the spring and they smell amazing!  However, for some reason, we don't get a lot of berries.  Luckily, I know where there are a few bushes around town and I forage from these bushes.  

I see elderberries is two colors, black and blue.  The bushes we have on the farm are blue.  I see blue ones in town a lot and black ones on the mountains.  Because of this dark purple color, the elderberries contain very high levels of the antioxidants.  The high antioxidant activity decreases inflammation and improving circulation. 

Elderberry’s are also known for its ability to ward off viruses.  This comes through the action of a potent antiviral component, antivirin, which affects the properties of viruses, preventing them from entering cells in order to replicate.  Elderberries are loaded with Vitamin C too so an elderberry syrup defeats the common cold with a one-two punch.

IMPORTANT:  Raw berries are NOT eaten intentionally because they contain a cyanoglycoside that can cause illness.  Heating/cooking the berries is a safe way to prepare them.  Usually, I am juicing the berries with my steamer juicer so the high heat deactivates the cyanoglycoside.

The elderflower also has medicinal properties and can be made into a tea or steeped to make a sweet, floral syrup.  This elderflower syrup is popular in Europe and people add a little of the syrup to seltzer or club soda and drink in the summer.

The flowers can also be dipped in batter and fried...kind of like an apple fritter.  Yum!  I did make some Elderflower Jelly and it turned out great!  Sometimes, the floral jellies do not have much flavor but this one did not disappoint.  Will definitely be making this one again...

I make jelly with elderberry juice and I add a little sugar to the juice to make syrup and add that to the lemonade to sell at the Farmers Market.  The jelly is one of Henry's favorites.  I do have some "medicinal" elderberry syrup that I made for us to take when we feel some sickness coming on.  

There is some for sale in the online store too!  Whenever I hear Mark start to cough, I start giving him some of the elderberry syrup several times a day.  I would actually like to try making some elderberry wine at some point but I will need a lot more elderberries.  I do add some of the syrup to my homemade kombucha and it is delicious!

Have an eggcellent day!

~Denise

50th Anniversary Celebration!

 In Kansas...

The end of October, our whole family headed to Kansas to celebrate Denise's parents 50th Anniversary.  Technically, their anniversary is not until November 25th, BUT they were celebrating with 2 other couples so that it would be one big party!  The couples all got married in 1972 and are good friends.  We started the festivities with a mass.  Two of the couples have children that are priests.  Here is Fr. John leading the couples in a renewal of their wedding vows.  Fr. John was in my class in school growing up so I know him well.  It is a small community so I know a lot of people there...naturally...

The happy couples take a pic after the Mass.  My parents the middle couple...Dennis and Terry Klenda...

Here is an invite that went out before the event and the pics of the happy couples on their wedding days...

After the mass, each family had their own dinner and then we met at the Community Center in town for a cake cutting ceremony.

You can watch a video of the cake cutting here:

Here is a pic of my family...from left to right...Denise (me), Tyler (brother), Dennis (father), Terry (mother), Dale (brother) and Darlene (sister).  Joshua took this pic for me so that is why it is a little crooked...

Then, cake was served to everyone!  Here is a pic of my brothers serving the cake and being goofy...

Then, the polka dance began!  The couples had a dance first and you can watch that here:

More dancing fun! And an open bar!  It was a great event!  The name of the polka band was called Barefoot Becky and she really did play barefoot all evening!  They came down from Iowa!

So grateful to my siblings for organizing this event with the other families.  It was a crazy amount of work and I felt pretty useless being several hundred miles away.  I was so happy to see some cousins that I have not seen for years and my aunt for Pennsylvania flew out for the event too.  A wonderful family came to take care of all the girls at the farm while we were gone.  It was so nice to not have to worry about that while we were having fun in Kansas!

Have an eggcellent day!

~Denise