I picked a five gallon bucket full on Thursday, but we had unexpected company for the weekend. I didn't want them to go bad as I didn't have time to de-stem them, so I just threw the clusters into a paper bag and put them in the freezer. I went to take them out of the freezer this morning, and accidentally dropped the bag.

The berries just fell off the stems! Shook the bag and all the stems came to the top. Took me about five minutes to clean almost ten pounds of berries!

Sure saved a LOT of time and NO purple fingers. Woo-hoo!

malna, what a great idea, I love it.

I also make elderberry jelly, I've always made jelly so I could strain those little stems out. Your way is better, I'm going to try it!

ceresone, don't dump the jelly, it's fine. I've been doing it that way for years.

Annie

I just finished putting them up into the freezer to make jam later. Another cool thing is the really tiny stems kind of stick to the paper bag as it gets a wee bit damp from defrosting. So I just took the bag, manually got all the big stems off the top of the stack (shaking a few times), dumped the berries into a quart canning jar (which holds almost exactly one pound of berries - perfect for one jelly recipe), then dumped the quart jar of very clean berries into a zip lock bag and back into the freezer.

No kidding - about 15 minutes total time for ten pounds of berries - start to finish! Annie, I KNOW you appreciate how much time it takes to process elderberries!

I have no idea how many elderberry stems I have eaten over the years, have loved them since a kid, ain't dead yet, lol.

Wow Malna, been making Elderberry jelly for countless years and learned a new trick! NEATO

Now, I have to find some Elderberries, doggone neighbor's kid weed wacked down the bushes at peak flowering time this year. I was upset, had the bird netting all ready to go.

BTW, Elderberry is a great cold/cough syrup. I put a teaspoon of jelly in tea with honey in the winter months.

Liz, too bad you aren't closer. I have so many that I don't even net them, the birds leave plenty.

malna, I didn't even make elderberry jam last year. I just couldn't face picking all those stupid little stems.

This year I sure will! I'm pressing cider this year too, I didn't do that last year either....

Annie

OH wow - I just spent half the day on Friday de-stemming 20lbs of elderberries - that would have saved so much time!!!! Normally we make jam and syrup, but this year we're going to try making elderberry wine too.

Glad I grabbed a paper bag - I don't normally have plastic bags laying around.

Here's what was left "stuck" to the bag (which Liz would have ended up eating LOL):

I guess I should have picked out those five berries that ended up in the compost pile, but I was being lazy :-)

Elderberries are "super fruit" status. They have been medicinal plants for a long time and just on the bare fact that they are a deeply dark purple, I am sure they are really good for you, antioxidants plus! I am in Massachusetts and picked from a stand of elderberry bushes with their roots in the ditch of a cranberry bog. I took my scizzors and cut clusters as they ripened, and then combed them off the heads and froze them. I used a steam juicer to extract the juice and then made jelly. Last year, I took all the stems off and then made jam. I am torn between the goodness of the jam with the "whole fruit" and the jelly extract. I love the distinct flavor and aroma of these berries. I left the tiny stems in when making jelly, but tried to extract most. When I made jam, I made every effort to leave out the slightly unripe berries and take out the stems. I will only know the results of this experiment if and when I reach the age of 100 :)