Ingredients - Elderberries (8-10 whole umbels)
- lemon juice 1/4 cup
- water (enough to cover umbels)
- sugar 1-2 cups (depending on how sweet you would like it)
| Directions Put whole elderberry umbels (stems & berries)into 2-quart pot; add enough water to cover elderberry umbels. Bring to a boil, then turn down to simmer.
Add lemon juice, and stir to mix well. As the berries simmer mash with fork or wooden spoon to extract juice; do this throughout the cooking process. Simmer and add water to cover as the berries cook for many hours.
Let sit overnight, then add more water in the morning and add sugar. Heat and stir continuosly, mashing berries to extract juice. Taste as you go along, if the mixture is not sweet enough add more sugar. Turn heat off and let mixture cool.
When cool squeeze juice from berries (juice will stain hands, so keep rinsing your hands off as you go along.) Place screen-type strainer over large bowl and strain. Throw away extracted stems & berries.
After you strain the juice, place into decorative glass jar with screw on lid or cork (I use a jar with a cork- it looks more old-fashioned.) Label as Elderberry Syrup and store in refrigerator. You can use this as a pancake or french toast syrup, as a drink and also good to take as a cough syrup. This taste really good! YUM! YUM!
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