ELDERBERRIES: Multipurpose fruit©

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elderberries

In 1656 William Coles documented the belief that gathering the leaves of elder on the last day of April and attaching them to one’s doors and windows would, “disappoint the charmes of Witches”.  Elder bushes were an integral part of gardens through the 18^th century, and why not?  How could one overlook the tasty flowers and berries prepared in a myriad of ways with the added benefit of warding off witches?

Elder plays a part in the early folklore of several countries.  Russians used to believe the spirit of the elder had great compassion for human beings and drove away evil spirits from them.  The Danes refused to make furniture from elder wood believing that doing so brought ill luck.  “If a cradle is made of the wood, the Elder Mother will come and pull the child out of it”.

Bushes can be dug from the wild, propagated by rooting in water or planting in soil, or bought from a nursery.  If rooting 6 inch cuttings in water plant them in small pots once roots are established.  Place the pots in a shaded location and keep watered until the following spring then plant in the home landscape.  If starting in soil, place the pot with the cutting inside a plastic bag so that a humid environment is simulated until the cuttings are rooted (keep out of direct sunlight), and proceed as above.  While the bushes are self-pollinating, planting more than one variety is said to produce bigger berries.

Elderberries are small and it would be very time consuming to pick them individually, therefore, when harvesting the recommended method was (and is) to cut the heads and let them drop into a basket.  One can then pick off the berries, or wash the heads and drop them into boiling liquid removing and discarding the remaining stems.  A quicker way to remove the berries from the stems is to cover a bowl or bucket with half inch wire mesh and just pass the berry bunches back and forth across it.  The berries will fall through the holes into the container.

All parts of the bushes have been used for one thing or another.  “The pith of the tree has wonderful powers, for, if cut in round, flat shapes, and dipped in oil, lighted, and then put to float in a glass of water, its light on Christmas Eve will reveal to the owner all the witches and sorcerers in the neighbourhood.  While this sounds ridiculous today, the Salem witch trials are proof that such things were once deadly serious.

Buds were pickled with pepper, mace, and lemon peel, elder tops (young shoots) were pickled, flowers were used to flavor vinegar or make drinks, the flowers were dipped in batter and fried to make fritters, sprays of flowers were put into sugar to impart a pleasant flavor, the berries were used to make wine, juice, pies, jam and jelly, tea can be made from the leaves, and the berries were used to make ink and to dye various items including champagne and leather.

Why aren’t we familiar with using these berries today?  Because, like many other plants, the lowly wild berry came to be considered inferior when tame berries were cultivated to produce larger and juicier fruit with less labor.  “It is strange that when there is a scarcity of fruit, as there was last year, people will lament the lack of fruit, when behold the fence corners are filled with these valuable bushes, bending down and overloaded with ripe delicious fruit that all goes to waste.  You need never be at a loss for fruit to make pies, for it grows spontaneously…Remember other fruit is liable to fail while this is a never-failing fruit”.  – “The Ohio Cultivator”.  1853.

Below are some historic elderberry recipes which may tempt you, but you may also want to try adding the berries to muffin, fritter, or pancake batter, mixing elderberry syrup with iced soda water for a refreshing drink, using the juice to make frozen popsicles or ice cream, etc.

ELDERBERRY ICE CREAM [modern].  This is similar to black raspberry ice cream that is popular in Pennsylvania.

2 cups elderberries (no stems); 1 cup water; sugar as desired; 2 cups heavy cream or half and half; 1 ½ cups milk; 5 egg yolks.  The syrup can be made ahead of time and refrigerated.

Combine the berries and water, bring to a boil and simmer until the berries begin bursting.  Add sugar half cup at a time until as sweet as you like.  Let the mixture cool slightly, then run it through a food mill or sieve.  Discard the solids.  Refrigerate until ready to use.

To make the ice cream:  Put the cream and milk into a heavy pan and slowly heat it, stirring so that it doesn’t scorch.  Add the elderberry syrup a half cup at a time until the flavor is as deep as you wish.  Bring the mixture to steaming but not simmering or boiling.

Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl.  Add a few spoonfuls of the cream mixture, whisking all the time, to the egg yolks.  Continue until the egg yolks are brought up to temperature without cooking and whisk all together.  Chill the mixture.  When cold put into an ice cream maker and proceed as for any basic ice cream.  The ice cream can be served as is, or made into popsicles.

ELDERBERRY PIE.  “Table Talk”.  Aug. 1903.

Line a pie dish with paste, upon which sprinkle a scant tablespoonful of flour; to this add a half cupful of sugar and a half teaspoonful each of cloves and cinnamon, rubbing all together evenly.  Upon this pour the berries, a pint more or less according to the size of your pie dish; pour over another half cupful of sugar, dot generously with butter, adding last one large tablespoonful of good vinegar.  Apply top crust quickly and bake.

ELDERBERRY PIE.  “Good Housekeeping”.  1891.

For a large pie, allow three cupfuls of berries, two tablespoonfuls of lemon juice or vinegar, two tablespoonfuls of flour, three-fourths cupfuls of sugar, and spices to taste.  Bake in one crust with a latticework top.

ELDERBERRY SHRUB.  Pour one pint of weak vinegar over one quart of elderberries; let them stand for twenty-four hours.  Strain, and pour the juice over a second quart of berries.  Let them stand for twenty-four hours, strain again, add one cupful of sugar to each cupful of juice, boil it up, and can or bottle if wanted for future use.  [To use, combine with ice water and drink].

ELDERBERRY CATCHUP. 

Elderberry catchup is excellent with game or cold meats.  Boil one quart of the berries with two cupfuls of vinegar and one tablespoonful of pickling spices tied in a muslin bag, for twenty minutes.  Put through a press or sieve that will retain the seeds, add two cupfuls of brown sugar, and simmer for ten minutes before sealing.

ELDERBERRIES DRIED.  Berry, Mrs.  “Fruit Recipes”.

Sun-dry the berries as for strawberries.  In some parts of Europe peasants use these in soups through the winter.

ELDERBERRY DUMPLINGS.  “The Ohio Cultivator”.

Make the crust as usual and put in the berries as you would other fruit.  Boil them fast till the crust is done, then take them up and eat with a dip of white sugar and sour cream, and you will confess they are delicious.

ELDERBERRY SYRUP.  “The Every-Day Cook-Book”.  1889.

Take elderberries perfectly ripe, wash and strain them, put a pint of molasses to a pint of the juice, boil it twenty minutes, stirring constantly, when cold add to each quart a pint of French brandy; bottle and cork it tight.  It is an excellent remedy for a cough.

ELDER TOPS, TO PICKLE.  “Cassell’s Dictionary of Cookery”.

About six inches of the tops of young elder sprouts, if cut at the right time—in the middle of April—will make a good pickle.  The sprouts should be first blanched in boiling water, then pickled in vinegar, adding salt and white pepper.  [Month when these shoots are at their prime will vary with locale].

Blissful Meals yall, cultivated or foraged, there are good things growing out there.  –  Thehistoricfoodie aka Vickie Brady.  Copyright©

See:  Rohde, Eleanour, “A Garden of Herbs”, 1922.  Berry, Mrs.  “Fruit Recipes”.  1903.

Soap Fit for a Queen©

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Pears Soap

Soap is a necessary item for our comfort and health yet it rarely receives notice or praise.  When made for a Queen, however, it is quite another matter.  In 1892, advertisements for Pears soap read:  “Pears Soap Makers by Special Appointment to Her Majesty the Queen”, and “Pears Soap Makers by Special Appointment to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales”.

Queen Victoria conferred the original Royal warrant for the sale of soap to the royal household and the honour was renewed by Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.  Another Royal warrant was held with the King of Spain

The soap was praised by such notables as the senior surgeon at St. John’s Hospital for the Skin, London and the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher.  The latter wrote an endorsement on Nov. 29, 1882.  “If ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness,’ soap must be considered as a ‘Means of Grace’—and a clergy-man who recommends moral things, should be willing to recommend Soap.  I am told that my commendation of Pears’ Soap some dozen years ago has assured for it a large sale in the U.S.  I am willing to stand by any word in favor of it that I ever uttered.  A man must be fastidious indeed who is not satisfied with it.  Henry Ward Beecher”.

Pears’ Soap took the highest prizes at International Exhibitions around the world – Paris, London, Philadelphia, Melbourne, Adelaide, Chicago, Santiago, Edinburgh, etc.

Pears Soap had humble beginnings but through keen marketing strategy it has remained popular into its third century of manufacturing.  Andrew Pears began making soap in London in 1789 and it is still available today.  Andrew took his grandson, Mr. Francis Pears, as a partner in 1835 and The House of Pears became A. & F. Pears.  Andrew left Francis to work alone in 1838 making a modest living but the soap wasn’t quite living up to its potential until 1865 when he was joined by Mr. Thomas J. Barratt and a young Mr. Andrew Pears (son of Francis and great-grandson of the original owner, Andrew Pears.  Francis Pears retired in 1875.

Thomas Barratt’s contribution to the success of Pears’ Soap was his persistence advertising it.  He was responsible for soliciting the endorsement of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and others and made sure it was featured in magazines and newspapers in Britain and the U.S.  The soap, as developed initially in 1792, was good enough in quality that all that was needed to make it a household item was acquainting the masses with the product.

“Each cake of Pears’ Soap goes through a drying process for a full year before leaving the works, which removes every particle of water.  A cake of Pears is all soap and only soap, that is why it lasts so much longer than ordinary kinds”.

So successful was Barratt’s advertising campaign that Pears Soap was truly, “in leading hotels, banks, clubs, steamship lines and hospitals throughout the world”.

Blissful Meals, thehistoricfoodie, aka Vickie Brady.©

 

Destruction Can Come in Small Packages©

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fire ants, fire ants and poultry, fire ants kill chicks

Prior to moving to coastal Georgia about 30 years ago I’d never heard of a fire ant.  The yard where we settled was manicured except for one area maybe 4 x 4 feet.  I decided to clean that up and as soon as I made one pass into the area with the mower I was covered with thousands of stinging ants.  The stings are quite painful and a single large colony can contain up to 250,000 worker ants.  Each bite causes an infected pustule and swelling.  I still have scars from that encounter 30 years ago topped off by more recent ones I got working in the garden and trying to get the ants off chicks and eggs.

We have lost several chicks (duck, chicken, and goose) this year.  At first I didn’t realize why we were finding so many half-hatched or day old dead, but seemingly fully developed, chicks in the pens and nests.  Eventually I found a pipped egg in a nest inside the chicken coop with ants on it, in it, and swarming all around inside the nest.  This wasn’t a case of a few ants crawling on an egg.  When I began to carefully remove bits of shell, ants came pouring out of the egg.  It was like something from a horror movie.  There must have been at least 200 fire ants inside the egg mercilessly stinging the poor chick.  Naturally it died and I realized we have a huge problem.

As soon as the chicks pip, the ants seize upon the bit of moisture and sting the poor chicks to death.  I had a hen hatching eggs in a cardboard box atop my freezer yesterday and by the time I saw the eggs were hatching the ants had already killed three of the chicks.  They climbed up the brick wall in the carport and from there managed to bridged the gap from the wall over to the freezer to get in the box.

A look at some chicken forums confirmed that the problem has been experienced in many areas of the South and one woman claimed the ants had killed a full-grown rooster.  The local Extension office has published papers to educate youngsters raising poultry, goats, rabbits, and other small animals for 4-H club on the dangers of fire ants when animals are penned and cannot escape them.

Cluster of fire ants floating in flood water, Wiki

The quail population in the Southeast has declined drastically, primarily due to newly hatched quail succumbing to fire ant stings.  Quail nest on the ground where the ants have no trouble  getting to the hatching eggs.  A similar problem has been observed with the brown pelican.  “Two years ago, a colony of brown pelicans off the coast of Georgia completely abandoned an area of their rookery right in the middle of the nesting season.  This was a sure signal that something was wrong.”  Brad Winn, UGA, investigated and found fire ants in the nests. *

The University of Nebraska did a study on the impact of fire ants on hatching turtles and reported a loss of 70% of hatchlings on Southeastern coasts.  Brad Winn, a DNR biologist from Georgia said, fire ants damage eggs by chewing holes in the eggs and while the University of Georgia report didn’t seem to think the problem as severe they did note that during and just after hatching young turtles are found that have been killed in the shell by fire ants and others that were killed by fire ants after hatching.

The ants are particularly dangerous for people who are allergic to their stings because so many of them can attack at once.  A young Alabama mother of two died this summer after fire ants came out of a bale of hay she was sitting on and stung her numerous times.

There are multiple types of fire ants, with “our” Red Imported Fire Ant being the worst.  It is the worst because of its swarming behavior, its painful stings, and its ability to reproduce at an astonishing rate.  They are also seemingly indifferent to poisons that finish off other kinds of ants.  “One sting isn’t serious but fire ants can use their stingers again and again, and they have a nasty habit of ganging up on their victims.  Mass stingings can kill animals and people”.  **

So far we haven’t used anything I’d consider an effective poison although I’ve seen recommendations for Advion Fire Ant Bait and Extinguish Plus Fire Ant Bait, both of which should be broadcast outdoors in the spring and fall. For existing mounds, granules should be spread, not on the mound, but about 3 to 4 feet around the mound.   For those of us with free-ranging poultry, the first step is penning them up so that they don’t eat the bait.  I put Sevin granules in my chicken nests using the recommended amount for the coops but that hasn’t helped the birds nesting outside the pens or the poor hen on top of the freezer.

Travelers to Brazil and other destinations described the painful stings of fire ants in the 1860’s, I wonder what they’d say if they knew that these miniscule stinging menaces were introduced to the U.S. through ship ballast, probably in Mobile, AL, and have spread to this degree throughout the Southeast.

* http://apps.caes.uga.edu/gafaces/index.cfm?public=viewStory&pk_id=963

**  Boys’ Life.  Sept. 1992.

Reclaiming Neglected Grape Vines©

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grape catsup, grape juice

We inherited a row of grape vines when we bought our little farm and this year they have rewarded our efforts at reclaiming them with sweet purple grapes.  The elderly couple who built the home had not been able to properly care for the place for a few years and as a result the fruit trees were all in desperate need of pruning.  The plum trees were beyond saving so we cut those down and planted new ones.  The grape arbor was a massive tangle of old vines with some green growth just at the top.  We severely pruned them per instructions in 19^th century treatises, half expecting them to die from shock, and this year we were pleasantly surprised with grapes.

Yesterday I picked 3 large dishpans full of grapes, stemmed them, juiced them, and canned seven quarts of grape juice, not bad for vines left neglected for so long.  Besides jelly, what might the juice have been used for by my grandmothers?  A little research provided loads of ideas.  Perhaps a few may inspire you as well.

GRAPE JUICE AND SODA. “Practical Druggist”.  Sept. 1908.

There is a demand for grape juice just served with many of the carbonated waters.  To do this, fill the glass half full of the desired water and pour in the grape juice last.  Mix with a spoon or by pouring.

GRAPE SUNDAE.  Same, Oct. 1908.

Ice cream is very tasteful when covered with the grape pulp; for this purpose the pulp is better if it be left undiluted.  This may be topped with a little whipped cream if desired.

WELCH’S GRAPE PUNCH.  Same, May 1908.

For a dainty, unfermented punch, take the juice of three lemons, juice of one orange, one pint of Welch’s grape juice, one quart of water and one cup of sugar.  If served from a punch bowl, add sliced oranges and pineapple.

GRAPE CREAM SODA.  “American Druggist”.  Oct. 1912.

Put a small cone of vanilla ice cream in a soda glass, add 2 ounces of grape juice, a spoonful of crushed fruit and fill up with the fine stream.  Top with a spoonful of whipped cream.  [Soda water].

ENGLISH PLUM PUDDING.  “Eureka Cook Book”.  1907.

Three cups chopped suet, 6 cups sifted flour, 2 cups raisins, 2 cups currants, 1 cup citron, 1 teaspoon each ginger, cloves, allspice, 1 grated nutmeg, I heaped teaspoon baking powder, a little salt, 3 eggs, wine glass of grape juice, milk enough to make a stiff batter.  Soak fruit in grape juice, chop the suet, and put it in a cool place overnight.  Mix baking powder and suet in the flour dry, add fruit, milk and the eggs, stir thoroughly.  Boil 6 or 8 hours in a well floured pudding bag or in a tightly covered pudding mould.  [The mixture can be put into a mixing bowl that is then placed inside a larger pan of simmering water when one does not have a pudding mould.]

GRAPE SOUP.  “The North End Club Cook Book”.  1905.

Stem, wash and cook enough Concord grapes to secure 1 quart of rich grape juice.  Add 2 cups of sugar, 2 cups of seedless raisins (which have been soaked in water for 2 hours) and 4 sticks of cinnamon.  Let boil for half an hour, remove the sticks of cinnamon and thicken with 4 tablespoons of flour.  Grape jelly can also be used in place of the grape juice.  To be served hot or very cold.

MINCEMEAT.  “Hanover Cook Book”.  1922.

1 ½ lbs. of beef boiled and chopped, 2 lbs. beef suet chopped fine, 4 lbs. apples, 2 lbs. raisins, 2 lbs. currants, 2 lbs. sugar, 1 pt. [pint] grape juice, 2 nutmegs, ½ oz. cinnamon, ¼ oz. cloves, ¼ oz. mace, 1 teaspoonful salt, ½ lb. citron, 2 large oranges.  [The mincemeat could be frozen in portions for baking pies.]

MINCEMEAT.  2.  “Hanover Cook Book”.

3 lbs. lean meat, ¼ lb. suet, 3 lbs. sugar, 5 lbs. apples, 2 lbs. raisins, 2 lbs. currants, ½ lb. citron, 3 lemons, 3 nutmegs, 1 oz. mace, ½ pt. grape juice, ½ gal. cider.  All these things must be chopped, meat well cooked; fresh tongue is best.

FRUIT CAKE.  “Hanover Cook Book”.

1 lb. sugar, 1 lb. flour, ¾ lb. butter, 8 eggs, 2 lbs. raisins, 1 lb. currants, ½ lb. citron, ½ pt. grape juice, 1 tablespoonful cinnamon, 1 teaspoonful allspice, 1 tablespoonful cloves, and 2 nutmegs.  [The amount of spice is probably too much for modern palates, adjust per your taste.  Cream the sugar, butter, and eggs.  Mix in the flour into which the spices have been mixed, the fruit, and grape juice.  Bake at 350 until done, test with a toothpick.  Fruit cakes flavored with grape juice were relatively common.]

FRUIT COCKTAIL.  “Country Kitchen Cookbook”.  1922.

1 cup cherry juice, ½ c. lemon juice, ½ c. grape juice, 1 pineapple, ½ lb. marshmallows, powdered sugar, 3 oranges.  Shred the pineapple.  Peel the oranges, free from membrane and seeds, and cut into small pieces.  Snip the marshmallows into small sections.  Mix the fruit and marshmallow and sweeten with powdered sugar.  Mix the fruit juices.  Serve the fruit mixture in cocktail glasses.  Put a couple of tablespoonfuls of the fruit juices over the fruit and finish with a spoonful of lemon sherbet.  A fruit cocktail may be served before a soup or in place of the soup.

GRAPE CATSUP.  Mothers’ Congress Cookbook.  1922.

5 lbs. nice ripe grapes mashed, cooked and run through the colander.  Add 1 pt. vinegar, 3 lbs. sugar, 1 tsp. ground allspice, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. black pepper, ½ tsp. salt.  Boil all together until thick enough for catsup.  [Put up per modern canning instructions in small jars].

GRAPE CATSUP.  1906.

1 quart of grape juice, 1 pint of vinegar, 1 lbs. sugar, ground cloves.  [I’m adding the allspice, cinnamon, and a wee bit of pepper found in most such recipes.  I won’t be dipping my fries in this, but tonight’s project is turning a quart of my grape juice into this catsup to serve with cold meats].

GRAPE JUICE SHERBET.  “Everwoman’s Canning Book”.  1918.

1 pint grape juice, 4 tablespoons lemon juice, Juice of half an orange, 1 tablespoon granulated gelatin, 1 ½ cups boiling water, ½ cup cold water, 1 cup sugar.  Soak gelatin in cold water five minutes.  Make a syrup by boiling the sugar and hot water for fifteen minutes; then add the soaked gelatin.  Cool slightly; add grape, orange, and lemon juice.  Freeze, using a mixture of three parts ice to one of salt.

Blissful Meals, Yall, enjoy summer’s bounty.  – Vickie Brady, aka thehistoricfoodie.©  Copyright 2016.

When is a Bean not a Bean?

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cucuzzi, edible gourd, New Guinea bean, yard-long bean

My uncle was a good country gentleman, a veteran of WWII, and what one might call a gentle giant in that he was generally quiet but when he did speak it was worth listening to.  He was the glue that held our family together as my grandfather died young and my uncle assumed the duties of patriarch.  His occupation was simply “farmer”.  He raised cattle, kept chickens, turkeys, guineas, pigs, and grew fields of corn and common, as well as some uncommon, vegetables in his kitchen garden.  Some of what he routinely grew when I was growing up faded into oblivion with his passing so when I rediscover one of his classics it is a little like regaining a piece of my childhood.

One such plant is cucuzzi, aka, edible gourd, Italian edible gourd, etc, but which my uncle called Yard-long bean.  The latter is what I knew it as, so, when I researched it and realized that his bean and the cucuzzi gourd are in fact one and the same I wondered how he came to know it as a bean.  An article from “Popular Science”, May 1920, reveals the plant was known by many as such, sometimes called New Guinea bean.  The article was entitled, “When a Bean Is Not a Bean It’s a Gourd”.  It has sometimes been called snake gourd although the two are actually two different plants.

“This gourd springs up as by magic when the seeds are planted after the danger of frost has passed.  Like the ordinary pole-bean, it will grow whether cared for or not.”  The plant is an aggressive spreader so give it plenty of room then let it do for itself.  Unless sprawling over other vegetables is considered desirable they are best trellised.

A humorous discussion on how an edible gourd came to be called a New Guinea Butter Bean” was found in “Bean-bag” [June 1920].  “All jests aside, the elongated gourd with the funny name is conceded to be a quite acceptable vegetable.  It can be prepared in a score or more ways and finds favor with many appetites…The gourds are at their best when about twelve inches long and covered with a white fuzzy growth”.

The plant’s merits are many.  Cattle, goats, and pigs eat them, poultry eat the seed, seed are easily perpetuated by letting one or two of the gourds grow to full size and harvesting the seed for the next year’s crop, and any that are inadvertently overlooked and get too large to cook can be dried and used for containers or crafts.  In the 60’s and 70’s my mom and aunts made floral arrangements, dippers, and bird houses out of the large dried gourds.

I’ve made out an order for seed from the Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and by this time next year I’ll be cooking a treat from my childhood and have my very own Mason jar full of dried seed stored away just like Uncle Wallace.

A 1909 book [“The English Vegetable Garden,  1909] spoke of its merits as a vegetable and recommended it for soups and stews.  It can be cooked in any way one would summer squash.  We most often sliced and fried the young tender gourds after a dusting of cornmeal.  After all, we are from the South and you know what they say about us and our frying pans.  Blissful Meals, yall, may your growing season see plentiful rain and sun and may your skillet never be empty.  -Thehistoricfoodie, aka, Vickie Brady.