The harvest is now in full swing. Everyone is pitching in eagerly – the whole family works together to make sure the elderberries get safely into our cellar house before the rain arrives. And to keep our energy up while we're snipping away, Grandma Farthofer serves up a hearty lunch.
Since 1997, the black elderberry variety 'Haschberg' – also known as Sambucus Nigra – has been growing and thriving on our organic farm in Biberbach. This is a native Austrian variety. Our harvest yielded large, juicy elderberries. Despite an extended dry spell, the berries ripened exceptionally well. The rain two weeks ago gave them a final boost of growth, and the abundant sunshine pushed the sugar content remarkably high. That's great news for Josef, because sugar content is crucial for the distillate. Josef crafts a fine Bio elderberry brandy from these wonderful berries.
But before Josef can process the berries, the elderberries first need to be stripped – that's the term for removing the small, vitamin-rich black berries from their clusters. With us, the clusters don't simply get thrown away. We place great importance on handling our raw materials with care and minimal waste. The clusters are reused as fertiliser, spread across our grain field where Schlägler Roggen is to be grown next. Of course, we also harvested the wonderfully fragrant elderflowers in spring. From the white blossoms, we conjured up anelderflower spiritand made a little syrup for our own use.
A culinary evergreen from the Mostviertel is, by the way, the Hollerröster. It's around this time of year that our tongues often turn a deep blue-violet. Here's our recipe for you:
½ kg berries
¼ l water
2 lemon slices
1 pear
5 plums
100 g sugar
⅛ l sweet or sour cream
20 g cornstarch
Simmer the elderberries with the lemon slices, pear wedges and stoned plums until soft, then sweeten. Thicken with cream and cornstarch.
Poisonous elderberries? Surely that's all just nonsense!
No, it's no rumour – elderberries really shouldn't be eaten raw. Before you can enjoy these wonderful berries, they need a good bit of heat. Elderberries contain a compound called 'sambunigrin', which can cause digestive problems or stomach irritation if consumed in excess. For this reason, they are heated to around 80 degrees before further processing. This breaks down the harmful substance, allowing you to enjoy and work with the little berries with complete peace of mind. Elderberry, by the way, is a time-honoured home remedy – rich in vitamin C and minerals, and said to have fever-reducing properties on top of everything else. It's a popular choice when flu season comes around.
