Elderberries

Having obtained the Wild Missouri cookbook as soon as it came out in August, and having it coincide with my catfishing outing, we immediately got started. After the catfish we were able to go to the freezer and use some of the remaining venison, which was vacuum packed and still excellent in quality. The seasonal nature of these recipes will require some advance planning. We thought we’d better go through the book and see what we might be missing.

Elderberries. They are ripe right now, so we hope. So on a Sunday morning, we all bike to Café Berlin, a restaurant that specializes in locally grown food, go to church downtown, and then head out on the MKT trail on our bikes in search of elderberries. We found a few in a spot that Ann was guessing they might be, but she had the spot pegged so precisely she figures it must be an old memory rather than a good guess. But there were almost no berries, probably already consumed by birds. The ones that remained were pretty dried up. We found one more patch, but they were in the same state: slim pickings.

Distressed that we may have missed elderberries for the year, I did the only thing you can do in a situation like this – I called my Mom.  As I predicted, she knew nothing of elderberries, but agreed with me that my Dad would know them, and would know where they are. So they set off together on their Mule (of the Kawasaki utility vehicle variety, not the long-eared type) to hunt them. She called back later that day. They had come up dry.

But the next day, I got a call from her again. My Dad had found some, and brought her back the stems. After an hour of de-stemming, she had three cups of elderberries. She froze them in a quart bag for us.

Later Ann’s boss also came through for her, providing several stems that were growing along the road near her house. It took a communal effort, but it seems we hadn’t missed the elderberry season after all.