Elderberries are everywhere at the moment. Small purple berries, they seem to grow on every roadside hedgerow all across England. It therefore seems fitting to use this free wild food to our advantage - in this case, to create one of the simplest wines possible.

Many people already know that Elderflowers can be used to make delicious syrups and cordials, but not many people know that the berries are also edible. The taste of the elderberries alone needs a little something extra, but when combined with another fruit such as blackberries they can be made into a number of products including wine, jam, and much more.

Elderberry Wine Recipe - Ingredients

• 1750 grams Elderberries
• 250 grams Blackberries
• 1kg Caster Sugar
• Juice of 2 Lemons
• 10ml Dried Bakers Yeast
• Water

Elderberry Wine Recipe - Method

1. Boil 2 litres of water and pour over the (prepared) berries.
2. Mash berries well to release juice.
3. Leave to stand in a warm place for 48 hours, stirring occassionaly.
4. Strain the juice through a clean cloth/towel, to remove solids.
5. Boil 2.5 litres of water along with the sugar and lemon juice to form a syrup, then add the the berry juice.
6. Prepare yeast with a little warm water and allow to ferment, add to the berry syrup, and mix.
7. Pour entire mixture into a wine fermentation jar, and leave for approximately 6 months, until fermentation has stopped (no more visable bubbles).

And finally…

Prepare wine as normal by pouring into another fermentation jar, being careful to leave being any sediement. Bottle and store as normal, drinking whenever desired. Enjoy!

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 4th, 2006 at 5:08 pm and is filed under recipes: Wild Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.