Wild Elderberry Use: A Pictorial Guide

First, track down some elderberry bushes (the ones growing wild in your yard should suffice).

Next, even though the berries can sometimes cause nausea if eaten raw, allow your "help" to eat as many as they'd like.

Place a guard on the accidental window to keep an eye out for berry pirates,

even if they spend most of that time admiring their lavender nail polish instead of pirate-watching.

Pirates!

Take pictures instead of picking berries.

After you finally put your nose to the grindstone and actually harvest the berries, pile them on your kitchen table. Admire them.

Here's the clincher. Now, remove every last berry off its tiny stem and place them in a large bowl, taking care not to include pieces of stem as they are slightly toxic.

Admire your fingers.

Admire the bowl of tiny jewels.

Thanks in large part to your "help," admire what is now the cleanest area of your kitchen floor. (It stayed that way for several more days, unfortunately. Why bother cleaning it when it's canning season?)

We harvested over ten quarts of berries and canned elderberry jelly, elderberry syrup, elderberry liqueur, and still had a gallon of elderberry pulp leftover. I froze it in smaller portions for winter muffins because it lends blackberry flavor and packs an antioxidant punch.

Hail, the Mighty Elderberry!