Elderberries – Fallowfield’s Gold

Welcome to another week! The pie count at Fallowfield United Methodist Church stands at 656.

Fallowfield’s volunteer bakers made 116 pies out of four bushels of Red Haven peaches on August 10. We also shelled a boxful of elderberries. Have you ever done this?

Let me tell you about elderberries. First you have to find them. Elderberries grow wild, but some people have them on their property. Most of the ones we bake with are donated. If they’re not, we have to go looking for them.

Last year three friends and I went to a field in Timbuktu and picked berries for an hour. Before we could pick the elderberries, the property owner had to drive his John Deere Gator through the field, knocking down waist-high weeds, briars, and saplings along the way. We waded through the grass, praying God would keep us from falling or breaking our ankles. (He did protect us, by the way.)

The bushes were about six feet tall. We had to pull the limbs down and clip the elderberry clusters, letting them fall directly into grocery bags. Otherwise they’d fall to the ground and we’d lose a lot of the berries. Then we took them back to the church for shelling. I bailed at this point. United Methodist Women shelled the elderberries at their meeting later that night.

Elderberries are super tiny – about the size of BB gun ammunition. To remove the berries from stems, you gently rub your fingertips over the berries and let them drop into pie pans. Why pie pans? So the pink stems stand out against the silver pans. Because stems resemble thread, it’s hard to keep from dropping them into the pans. People don’t want to eat stringy stems in their pie. After we shell them, we freeze them. Then they’re ready to be made into pies.

At Fallowfield we say elderberries are as valuable as gold. The time and effort it takes to find, pick, and shell the berries is what makes them priceless.

It’s also priceless seeing elation on customers’ faces when they spot elderberry pie on our menu. I’ve often heard people say that their grandmas made this pie or that they grew up eating it and can’t find it anywhere. Now you have a better idea of why this is.

You have one more chance to help make pies before fair week. Please join us at Fallowfield United Methodist on Monday, August 17, at 5 p.m. During fair week you can work at 6 a.m., 10:30 a.m., or 3 p.m. We’d love to have your help. And remember: pies equal profit. Net profit will be donated to missions at home and around the world. Elderberries end up feeding souls as close as Meadville and as far as Ethiopia.

Have a wonderful week. Blessings!