New-York tribune., 1907-10-07
ELDERBERRY VINE.
Some Ne1o York HOuSezciUes Make
1t for Their Families.


How many people know that in the swamps Of
New Jersey, and up around Tuckahoe. White Plains
and I'm many other places within easy reach OF
New York, there grows wild fruit out Of which
a most delicious wine can be made? That fruit -
the elderberry Our graudmothers made their elder
berry wine every year a matter OF course but
are willing to take the time and trouble. They
drink commercial wines and take the risk OF the
chemicals some contain. But now and then one
runs across somebody who makes a supply OF elder
berry wine regularly the autumn comes
around. one woman who does lives NJ on 11Oth
street. and Saturday a Tribune reporter found her
tending recumbent keg. at the bunghole OF which
the liquor. in process OF fermentation. fixed and
bubbled like lava ~ the mouth of a volcano
1t must 5e watched she said, seiZing "a OF
sugar and pouring a little in at the bung-
hole. If should go away and allow the wine 10
become lowered by the smallest trlhe below the
bunghole II would not work properly. Yes, II is
labor 10 make It. but it is fine to have II when we
have guests 70 whom wish to give the best, or
when there is sickness. II is medicinal we'll as
good TO the taste. We wouldn't be without elder
berry wine any more than we'd be without H)nee
or butter. or anything else you must have"
The whole family goes out from this home 10
gather the ederberries. but make a picnic
Of it," said the woman, and my husband gathers
the berries. He takes off his shoes and stockings
and ties them over his shoulder, and plunges bare
foot into the swamps where the bushes grow
There's one thing you have to be careful of-poison
ivy. Poison ivy and elders seem TO like each other
and you often find the two in close communion
There's another thng-the berries that belladonna
is made OF grow on a bush that Is found soue-
times right among the elders; the berries look
very Ike the elderberries. and there's danger Of
picking them for eldeTberries 1t would be bad II
did. for they poisonous But they are
larger than elderberries, so. If you know the two
you can tell them apart.
How do make the wine? Well. we put the
berries in washtub, twigs and all. and squeeze
the juice out with the hands. They stand in the
tub. So two three days. Then take keg
with capacity Of thirty gallons or and cleanse
It thoroughly. After cleansing il We burn stick
OF sulphur nside-or try to; sometimes the sulphur
won't bum and that shows that there is stil some
m No IN he
wine. Wine mustn't be made in keg that sulphur
won't bum in. Then mix the juice with wa
ter and sugar-about thirty pounds of sugar to
three gallons of juice, and enough water TO fill up
the keg Then II stands in the keg and ferments
and throws off all impurities. for. say about two
weeks. When 1t becomes quite clear II is corked
tightly and allowed to stang through the winter
But wnen March comes. anf|the sap in the bushes
out In the ground begins 10 STIR the sediment of
the wine I'm the keg feels the call of the season.
too, and begins 10 work. Then the wine must be
drawn off and the keg cleansed, else the wine will
not stand in il without spoiling."
This is the dark wine that is made from the ber-
ries. white wine. very like champagne. is made
from the white flowers that cover the bushes in
June. First the flowers are carefully dried. then
TO seven ounces of the flowers added one gallon
of water, three pounds of sugar the juice of
lemon. cake of yeast and the white of an egg
made like snow" said the German who
told the reporter about this wine Properly cooked.
white elderberry wine is very good substitute for
champagne
Few farmers know the value OF the elders grow
ing on their land. II got the berries for that keg
of wine" said one New York to the reporter,
pointing to a keg with a capacity of twenty eight
gallons. from one bush.growing Un a New Jersey
farm Take 'em along. the farmer said, when I
asked him. I don't want EN- He had no notion
of their worth"
Some OF the New Jersey farmers make elder
berry wine, though. There was one Morristown
man who got a very good income out OF imitation
port made from elderberres He worked the berries
10 their full limit After squeezing out what Juice
he could with his hands-all that IS used for the
hest wine-he put the refuse through a wine press
oddad lot OF water to the resulting tuice doctored
the stuff up with chemicals and put it the mar
ket as "the best imported port
But real elderberry wine needs name but its
own TO make 1t eagerly sought by those who know
It's virtues. According TO Noah Webster the elder
Ga narcotic. purgatIve and acrid" And the flowers
are ''dlaphoretio and expectorant" He adds that
the berries make sort of wine" 1t cannot be
that he ever drank IT, or he would have been more
enthusiastic than that