Elderberries

I only went very briefly to the allotment to harvest a few bits and pieces - my cold is catching up with me so the thought of digging and weeding just didn't do it for me today! As well as the veg, Pete had also spotted on previous trips that there were elderberries growing wild by the fence where we park, so I also picked some of those.

I hadn't realised until I got home and started trying to take them off the stalk just how many I'd actually picked! If I'd had any idea how labour intensive it was going to be I would have been much less gung-ho about picking - getting them off the stalks took hours, and as you can see from the photo a few stalks still managed to sneak through! There are 1.465kg of berries here (the elderberry and apple chutney recipe I have dug out says it needs 425g, so I think there is going to be an awful lot of chutney in our future!)