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Foraging Elderberries

for·age (verb)ˈfôrij,ˈfärij to search widely for food or provisions


Purposeful foraging is fairly new to me. I mean, I've always loved picking berries besides creeks during hikes, but to go out with the purpose of picking wild foods for cooking and preserving later...well, that's a recent addition to our kitchen adventures. One of the books that has inspired me is Foraged Flavor.* You can also see some good foraging guidelines, written by Alexandra Risen, in one of my posts for the #UnearthedParty that was timed with Risen's book release: here.

We've foraged fiddlehead ferns, miner's lettuce, and pine needles for an evergreen tisane; I even cooked with Japanese maple leaves, making Momiji Tempura with them. So when I saw a tree teeming with elderberries, I made a note to go back with the boys.


They cooperated to clip and collect about 8 C of elderberries.



At home, we rinsed and let them air-dry. You'll see these in a few upcoming recipes.


*This blog currently has a partnership with Amazon.com in their affiliate program, which gives me a small percentage of sales if you buy a product through a link on my blog. It doesn't cost you anything more. If you are uncomfortable with this, feel free to go directly to Amazon.com and search for the item of your choice.

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