Hi - we do a lot of foraging in the hedgerows at this time of year. Today we went to seek out bullaces and elderberries, both of which we use to make jam. My quandary is that whereas most ripe elderberries seem to have reddish stems, some of them have green ones though the leaves were exactly the same as the others. Is there anything else we could confuse them with, or is it, as we suspect, green because the green ones were in shade?
Another concern - I've read that the seeds/leaves/stems contain cyanide and are toxic. We remove every bit of stem and twig we can see but occasionally bits might slip through! Haven't poisoned anyone as yet and we've been making hedgerow jam a few years now, so how much of a worry is this?
Any advice/reassurance welcome!
Do you find estrangement is the gift that keeps on giving.....?
