Being Wild and Making Wild Medicine

We are getting to the best part of the season, I love the slow (sometimes not so slow) shift into fall.

There has been many good dog swims in the reservoir, I love seeing the wild happiness as my dogs swim and shake and then run around in all their glorious freedom!

Late summer is amazingly abundant and a great time of year for adventuring, gathering, swimming, medicine making, preserving/canning, harvesting...

I have a few spots I love to gather elderberries for syrup.

I try every year to get enough for at least one batch (quart mason jar full), but preferably enough to freeze the extras for medicine making in the dead of winter.

Sadly, some of the spots I would wild harvest either died off or were chopped down (insert gasp from my shock and horror!). But there are still a few places I covet!

I used to have elder bushes that grew right along the edge of the yard at a house I rented, but sadly I had to move away from there. Although, I tended to leave those berries for all the wild birds to make sure they were fed and healthy and I would go down the street to the bigger bushes to harvest.

No matter, I have found some this year!

And thank goodness for tall friends because all the big clusters of berries were way out of reach for me without a ladder! Many of the clusters were picked over from birds, or the berries had fallen off from being so ripe, but I got enough to make some syrup!

For my recipe see here or here, and if you are wildharvesting make sure you use the black elderberries!!!

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Stay wild and free, my friends!

xo