There’s a special kind of magic in harvesting something you didn’t plant. This year, elderberry season surprised us in the best way. We planted bushes our first spring on the property. We’ve never harvested many berries from them. But this year, two huge volunteer bushes popped up out of nowhere. One of them was growing right beside the house, and both were loaded down with berries.

Elderberries are special because they are native to North America and you can find them growing wild just about anywhere. There are so many wonderful things you can make with them, from classic elderberry syrup to tinctures and teas. But we decided to turn our unexpected bounty into elderberry jelly. Well… jelly-ish. It ended up thicker than syrup but thinner than a true jelly. We love it even more. It tastes a lot like blackberry jelly and we’ve been putting it on everything like ice cream, pancakes, toast, and biscuits.

And when my mom came to visit, we decided to use the elderberry jelly in a margaritas. I’m honestly not even sure why because my mom doesn’t even like margaritas that much. But she loved the elderberry maragarita, and since elderberries are packed with antioxidants, we’re calling it a health drink 😂

We followed this no-pectin recipe, and while adding pectin would have made it set more firmly, I actually love the versatile consistency. Because we made a small batch, we didn’t bother canning. We now have a couple of jars tucked into the fridge, ready to brighten our winter days.

Tips for harvesting elderberries:

Make sure the berries aren’t red and are a deep, dark purple
Cut off the clumps & freeze them
Once the berries are frozen, they are much easier to remove from the stems

Elderberry Margarita

Ingredients:

.5 oz. Elderberry Jelly
1 oz. Tequila Blanco
1 oz. Cointreau
1 oz. Fresh Lime Juice
Ice
Lemon Lime Sparkling Water
Lime wedges for garnish
Salt and Sugar for Rim of Glass

Shake first 4 ingredients together. Use a lime wedge to wet the rim of the glass and coat in a sugar and salt mixture. Add ice to the glass and pour the mixture over ice. Top with a couple ounces of sparkling water and garnish with a lime wedge.

If you’re not much of a drinker, you could easily make a non-alcoholic version. Add the jelly/syrup to sparkling water and squeeze a lime in and voila! You’ve got a refreshing drink. You could also still add the salt & sugar rim for the glass with a lime wedge.

If you give this drink a try, let us know!