Thursday, August 23, 2012

Its August. The colors are turning on the hillside here in Utah. The scruboak has gone bright red, and you can see splashes of orange. Soon the choke cherries will be ripe for harvest, and the elderberries not long after that.
These are some of my favorite things to do in the early fall climbing the mountain sides looking for the uncultivated crop. It is a wonderful family outing. My son John has always enjoyed it when he could do it with me. Often the most plenteous pickings will be alongside a road, which will require a thorough rinsing if the road is gravel or dirt. Roadsides provide a nice break from the shade where red choke cherries, and blue elderberries can ripen in the morning sun. So you don’t have to go far afield to find them, then again, you can. There are several recipes a person can find for both elderberry and choke cherry. Don’t eat them raw. People make jams from choke cherries. They are small, and need lots of sugar to make them edible. Elderberries
are made into all sorts of delicious concoctions. But really the best thing to do with either of them is to make wine. Again a simple internet search will land you with many recipes for wine, jams, and preserves. Pancakes with choke cherry syrup is quite awesome.
But here is a little tip. Buy yourself a steam juicer. You can crush and juice by hand. But a steam juicer is really the way to go with this stuff, especially if you are doing any sort of volume like that which is required to make a five gallon batch of wine. All of these things make great gifts for friends and family. Both make for a cheap family outing.
Another tip, bring small buckets for the children to fill, they can pour them into a bigger bucket when they have filled the smaller bucket. Bring a ho, or some other utensil for pulling high branches down to picking range. You can also bring loppers and hand pruners. Pruning will help you get to material you otherwise might not be able to reach. It is also generally healthy for the plant, encouraging new and vigorous growth which often produces even more fruit the following year. This is a great time to be out of doors, the scenery is spectacular.