Last Wednesday the kids and I went creek stomping with a homeschool group.
While heading back to the car we stumbled upon some ripe elderberries.
There have been a few summer colds going around our house, so I decided to make elderberry syrup.
I brought 1 c berries, 3 cloves, and 3 c water to a boil, then let it simmer for thirty minutes. I then strained the mixture and discarded the solids. I let the mixture cool a bit then mixed in a cup of honey.
I’ve been giving the kids a spoonful each day to boost their immune systems.
The kids love the elderberry syrup. They even enjoyed some on banana oat pancakes.
I loved foraging and hope to find more treasures in the woods soon. Do you ever forage? What do you make?
mildlygranola 
That looks delicious! I don’t trust myself to eat things I find in the woods. I’d need a lot more practice identifying things.
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I double check before I eat anything, that is for sure.
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I can generally pick enough fiddleheads for several meals out of my yard. And we picked fox grapes last fall: https://kayak2016blog.wordpress.com/2020/10/06/kayaking-on-a-hunt-for-grapes/
They became jelly. Is maple syrup foraging?? I don’t trust myself on mushrooms, though.
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I want to make maple syrup next year. I don’t forage for mushrooms either, but I would make an exception for a morel mushroom.
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We have been trying to get and elderberry bush for two years, and can’t seem to hit the nursery at the right time, you are so lucky to have them growing wild! We recently made flannel Mullen extract, which is good for asthma. I’m lucky, though, I have a plant ID expert living at my house!
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I hope you find an elderberry bush next year. I can’t believe how many are growing wild in the suburbs around here. Having a plant ID expert in house would be very handy.
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That syrup sounds so yummy!
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The kids love it, and it was super easy!
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There are lots of elderberries in the woods behind the house but I haven’t picked any. My neighbour makes elderflower ‘champagne’ and gave me a bottle in exchange for a cucumber!
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Wow, what an exchange!
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I ended up giving her a whole cucumber plant and she also gave me a tub of black currants so it was a great exchange
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It sounds like you got a good deal there. How was the “champagne”?
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We haven’t opened it yet
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When you do open it I hope you have the right crystal to use for the occasion. 😉
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😂😂😂😂😂
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About the only thing to forage on Cape Cod is cranberries if you can sneak into a bog without getting poison ivy all over you, and dangerous mushrooms which we are trying to avoid at all costs. We’ve had so much rain that there must be about 50 varieties of mushrooms in my backyard which I need to sweep away before the corgis get out there. Not much to forage on a golf course, lol 😏
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Foraged cranberries would be really cool. Without the poison ivy, of course.
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I am suspecting you are one seriously cool Mom! That sounds like a great adventure and those are the kinds of things from your childhood that you remember as an adult!
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I hope you are right. We do have a lot of fun.
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It looks like you guys had a great time, and the elderberries are a great find! The elderberry syrup sound delicious, and also really great for immune boosting 🙂
Where I grew up we did a lot of foraging. In the area near our house we had cherry, walnut and apple trees, and also a field where strawberries grew wild. A little ways away we had blueberry bushes. My grandfather knew a place to get morels. He wouldn’t tell anybody where they were – he would just go off one day and come home with a garbage bag full. I don’t forage up here as I don’t know the plants well at all.
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People are so secretive about their morel spots! I’m trying to get my SIL to take me with her so I can find one.
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They are! I kind of see why, but it’s frustrating when you are trying to find some! Maybe bribe her with a hat or some socks?
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I have an app called Picture This which is pretty good for plant ID. I have only foraged wild onions. The other things that I’ve picked around here were definitely planted: blackberries, black raspberries, blueberries, pears, and apples. I used to forage morels when I was a kid with an experienced adult, but I wouldn’t trust myself to do that alone. I planted an elder in the garden. I don’t know if it will survive.
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I use Google Lens for the same thing. I hope your elder makes it.
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I would have NO Clue how to footage in the woods. City girl here 😂
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