Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1908 — THE NEGLECTED ELDERBERRY [ARTICLE]

THE NEGLECTED ELDERBERRY

It Is Really a Wholesome and Delicious Fruit. Of the wild fruits few are more delicious than elderberries. Our forewho had to depend upon the wild fruits alone when the country was new, learned many arts that seem almost forgotten In thesg? later days, and one of them was the use of elderberries. They gathered them, stemmed, washed and packed them in deep earthen jars untH within three Inches of the top and then filled the jar with Orleans molasses. The berries kept in this way, too, and made delicious pies through the long, bleak winter, when good things were scarce. Another way, which some of us remember, was to dry them in the sun, and this, too, gave many an appetizing dish that otherwise would have been forever lacking. Somehow the pioneer woman found her greatest joy in providing good things for her family. One wonders if the women of today who have “careers” know as much real happiness as did the pioneer women of fifty years ago. But elderberries still grow, and they are still good. Let the boys gather some and try an elderberry pie. Make a rich crust anil pinch it up high around the edge, so that the pie will not he. as some one said, “all fence and no pasture.” Fill it with the clean berries, add a tablespoonful of good vinegar and a teacup of sugar into which a tablespoonful of flour has been stirred. Cover with a top crust and bind- the edges together with a strip of cloth, or some of the rich juices will be lost sure. Bake forty minutes. A delicious sauce can be made with apples and elderberry juice, or a jelly can be made in the same way. Cook apples and berries together, one part of berries to three or four of apples. Strain the juice and cook as any other Jelly. Elderberry juice is a fine addition to grape juice, both because of flavor and medicinal qualities.

Potted Strawberries. At this season of the year there are always a number of inquiries with regard to potted strawberry plants. Tbe idea is that extra strong plants can be grown by plunging pots into the ground and setting the young plants into these while still attached to the mother plants. These potted nurslings are then transplanted to permanent beds In August or September and are expected to yield a crop the following year. Practically one year is thus saved in the production of a strawberry crop. The value of this method can be pretty accurately set forth in a dozen words. It is interesting play for amateur gardeners, but has no standing in commercial strawberry culture. It is never undertaken on a commercial scale. But in small gardens, where the fun of growing things is equal to the market price of the produce, fall planted potted strawberry plants may be cordially recommended. These facts account for the annual appearance of the potted plant fever in the amateur horticultural journals. The scheme is suited perfectly to those who have not yet progressed beyond the reading of such magazines. Unfortunately, however, these amatenr horticultural periodicals very Seldom warn their credulous readers that the idea is of no commercial value, and so from year to year, along with a small crop of strawberries, there flourishes a larsre crop of needless disappointment