Elder Flower Cornmeal Pancakes
These taste wonderful hot or cold. Makes a great finger snack to eat on your way to work, and nothing else tastes quite like them.

Whisk together in a bowl:
1 1/2 cups stone ground cornmeal
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
Whisk together in another bowl:
1 3/4 cups milk
4 tablespoons melted butter
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons maple or other syrup (optional).
Pour wet ingredients over dry ingredients and mix just until combined. Mix in
1-2 cups elder flowers
Ladle out onto a heated buttered griddle and cook til golden brown. Flip over and cook the other side.
Serve with your favorite syrup, jam, jelly or all by itself. Keep leftovers in a zip lock bag, refrigerate or freeze.

Elderberry Jelly
There are many good elderberry jelly recipes out there. This is just one of many. According to the Louisiana Nature Conservancy, you can freeze elderberries once with no loss of quality. This makes it easy to gather berries in increments over the season, as shown on Page 2B slide show, them make a year's supply of jelly all at once. Great for Christmas presents, party favors. Also keep frozen for pies, which you make like any other berry pie recipe.

Start out by lining a large colander with a double layer of folded dampened cheesecloth. Place colander in a big pot.

3 pounds fully ripe elderberries

Wash and pick over berries (frozen or fresh), removing stems, and place in a saucepan. Simmer over LOW heat about 15 minutes, crushing a bit (not too much) with a potato masher or back of a large spoon to break the skins so the juice can expel from the berries. Stir occasionally. Pour through a jelly bag or double layer of cheesecloth into a pot. Tie off the cheesecloth, lift, and let the juice drip into the pot overnight. Do not squeeze or your jelly will be cloudy.

The next day, sterilize enough jars and lids to hold 5 cups of jelly. If you don't have lids, get your parafin wax ready to melt in a pot, and ready to pour about 3/8 inch thick to seal each jar.

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice (2 to 3 lemons)
1 box pectin (Sure-Jell)
4 1/2 cups sugar

Mix all lemon juice with berry juice, and add water as necessary to = exactly 3 cups. Stir in pectin. Bring to boil in a 6 to 8 quart pot. Add sugar and continue boiling for exactly one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from fire. Ladle into sterilized jars and cap immediately, or let it set then seal with melted parafin wax. Yummy! It's almost pure sugar, but hey, that's what jelly is!

Elder Capers
Pick a cup of flower buds or the green berries, wash thoroughly, and pack in salt for 2 days. Remove berries from salt (and save salt for the next batch). Rinse, pat dry, and drop the berries in a jar containing a boiled and cooled mixture of:

1 cup white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1/2 lemon, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon pickling spice
1 clove garlic, chopped
4 to 6 peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon celery seed

Keep the mixture refrigerated and use as you would use store-bought capers--on salads, in stews, as pickles.

Elderberry Tincture
This is supposed to be good for breaking up mucos in the sinus, throat and lungs, and many other things which you'll read about in the links below. (I haven't personally tried it, but at least I can share with you how to make a tincture.)
Place ripe elderberries in a jar and just barely cover with vodka or brandy. Cap and let sit in a dark place for at least 2 weeks, turning over gently once a day or so, strain, and there's your tincture. Label the mother jar with the plant, month and year you made it, keep it in a dark cabinet and dispense little dropper bottles of it around to your friends. They'll soon be calling you a Witch, and if it works like it's supposed to, calling you for more tincture! Alcohol extracts the nutrients from whatever you put in it, so you can make tinctures out of all sorts of leaves, roots, berries, flowers, etc. that might not otherwise be easy to eat (like echinacea flowers and roots), but you want the medicinal benefits from.

******* WINE MAKING *******
I haven't made elderberry wine myself, but here's a site full of one expert's recipes and how tos.
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/elderber.asp

Elder Links
Follow these links for lots more info--botanical, identification, history, cultivation, medicinal uses. Your education will not be complete without this information, which is not included in my newsletter as I see no need to repeat what other experts have said.

BOTANICAL, HISTORY AND PHOTOS:
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/e/elder-04.html

PROPAGATION, GROWTH HABITS

VARIETIES, CULTIVATION:

NUTRITIONAL AND MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
http://www.nuyakacreek.com/elderberry.htm
http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/medmuseum/galleryexhibits/naturespharmacy/elderberryplant/elderberry.htm
http://www.go-symmetry.com/info/elder-flower.htm