Oooh, exciting!
When I lived in California i used to make elderberry wines by combining them with either California coffee berries for a sweet port style dessert wine or with carob for non-port style wines.
I too would be interested to hear more about your elder mead (or any other ideas for elderberry wines).
I’m in Pennsylvania now, which of course means i have other different fruits to grow / forage for such concoctions…
(Side note, my last bottle of CA coffee berry elderberry port will be cracked open this coming September for our first wedding anniversary. We will see how well it aged…)
I’ve planted 3 elder bushes on the property so far, looks like I’ll get one cluster this year (though I’ve taken note of other wild bushes in the area i may have a chance to forage as well)
Edit: you posted your recipe while i was replying!
I’ll have to keep that in mind. Any preferred species of fungi? Or are there just general mixes that can be bought online? (Sorry, i did not watch the video…)
Here’s the stuff I used. Unfortunately it only comes in 1lb packages, so it might not be worth it unless you have a bunch of other things that you’re repotting.
I use wine cap spawn mixed with wood chips as a mulch for newly transplanted trees and bushes. It’s very user friendly and I think they’re pretty tasty, too.
Yeah, i don’t think I’ve ever seen plain elderberry juice in stores. Of course, i also haven’t looked for it, siince i get pretty much all i need pretty much free. If you are going to get into this kind of whole fruit brewing, i strongly urge investing in a steam juicer, though. Makes short work of what would be a daunting task. A 5 gal bucket of berries on the stems yeilds about a gallon of juice that way.
Yeah. This would probably not be a regular thing. I didn’t realize the juice was so expensive! The plants will grow in Texas, according to the Aggies, but are big. However, he might be able to adapt the recipe for other juices. We have blackberry bushes. It’s possible I can find somewhere local to get berries @docosc why the tea leaves?
Still not cheap, but cheaper than what you could likely find in most locales (although currently out of stock) is elderberry juice concentrate. Never tried it myself, though i am considering their beet juice concentrate for wine. https://www.fruitfast.com/elderberry-juice-concentrate-quart-32oz.html?amp=1
I fully approve, as I’ve played around with growing other mushrooms, though I’ve not tried wine caps. However, I’m fairly certain wine caps are not mycorhizzal. As i understand their ecology they are strictly decomposers.
Is there any evidence that they do form mycorhizzal relationships?
Mikro-Myco, Highly Concentrated Mycorrhizal Fungi –11 Endo/Ecto Mycorrhizae, Water Soluble Powder for Exponential Root Growth (2 oz) https://a.co/d/0G40xad
This is the stuff i use. Yeah, wine caps have a lot to reccomend them, but they are not mycorrizal fungi. I have a theory that after using this for a while, the soil should be sufficiently colonized that it becomes self-sustaining. Maybe?
I grow them for lead remediation, but they’ve done a good job of supporting the health of my transplants - whether that’s simply due to soil nutrition improvement I couldn’t say.
I think there may be a blip in the terminology that I’m finding online about mycorrhizzal fungi. I was under the impression that mushroom by definition were the fruiting body of mycorhizzal fungi, but obviously my definition is out of date. Some places are using it only for ecto or endo micorrhizzal and others are using it like mycelium. If it’s ecto micorrhizzal you want I’m not sure how successful one can be in cultivating it. Is there a variety that can be easily added to the soil?
Thirded. I bought one a few years ago and have made many litres of juice since - grape, loganberry, plum, apple, blackcurrant, redcurrant…
So much more efficient than a muslin and an upturned stool. Plus it gets bottled already effectively sterilised so keeps for ages without any water baths or other faff.
I undo one bottle at a time, heat up with a little sugar and make a cordial (syrup) for dilution with soda water from a sodastream. Some of my bottles as yet unused do date back as much as 3 years.
And here’s a pic of my sweetcorn doing some weird stuff. It looks like both the male and female bits are growing from the same stalk in a few cases. I’ve never seen this before.
It’s the larval form of a ladybug. Cryptolaemus montrouzieri. At least if Google Lens is to be believed. They’re supposed to be a beneficial insect. Not to my amaranthus, I guess.
