Fermented beverages have been staple among Indigenous people throughout the world. They are always made from a sacred plant that grows in the region of the people. They are always made in ceremonial ways. Myths abound concerning where these fermented beverages arose from, often indicating that supernatural sources, such as goddesses or gods brought the wisdom to craft these beverages to the people! Whether you call these beverages "beer or wine" is irrelevant. Some people whose noses rise high into the air insist that only grapes give rise to wine. We, along with many others, do not subscribe to such snobbery, and call what we make what we want. Everyone can come to their own definition of wine vs. beer. What is consistent is that they are all fermented.
Fermentation has been a critical form of releasing additional enzymes, proteins and valuable nutrients within a food source. Very often a fermented beverage or food is higher in digestible nutrients and higher in vitamins and minerals that we are able to absorb. In our way of speaking, fermentation is a way to "Release" the energy of the Spirit and make it more accessible to the human being. Indigenous people have been making fermented beverages for millennium. In the Papagos, the people utilize(d) the Saguaro cactus, the Aztecs utilized the Agave Cactus, the Quecha, the Tarahumara, and the Suriname Indians among many others, use the Corn to make Chincha (Corn beer), and of course those cultures that grew Manioc (Yucca) such as the Taino, made a Manioc beer, which is said to be very high quality! There are rice beers and wines, millet beers, banana beer, palm wine and beer and so many more. Even in Europe various wines and beers were made. All these have been greatly limited due to the commercialization of fermented beverages. We basically can only access grain based beer and grape base wine in terms of fermented beverages. In the past, and re-emerging in the present, was a vast array of medicinal beers and wines, which were typically made by every family.
Here we could source manioc to make fermented manioc beer, however we have growing naturally many Elder shrubs, and an excellent wine can be made from them! The medicinal value is high, it is both nutritious and will combat a cold or flu! The plant itself is very attractive. We do utilize wine to make offerings to the Ancestors, so this is also important as a ceremonial offering.
This post shares images from the process of making wine from Elderberries. We also make tincture from both the berries and flowers, syrup from the berries, and tea from the flowers. The flowers are powerful in inducing the body to sweat, very cleansing for the body when a cold of flu is upon us!
About two months later, early August, the berries begin to ripen and continue to ripen over about the period of a month. Birds adore the berries, especially the Cat Birds in our space. There was a Cat Bird nest in our biggest thicket and while the Cat Bird tolerated us getting somewhat close, he became very distressed when we got too close to his nest. So we gave him a respectful distance, admiring his courage and his wise choice of nesting amid his favorite food!
We collect the berries in baskets and need about 15 pounds to make 5 gallons of wine. This is about 9.6 oz or almost 2/3 rds of a pound per finished bottle of wine. This is a tremendous amount of elderberries per bottle and has high medicinal value!
The berries are pounded in some water in a bucket.
The next day the berries are strained through a cheesecloth and sieve. This is hard work as it is best to get as much of the berry juice out as possible.
Yeast is now added and the bucket is left covered with a cloth for about 10 days to allow the aerobic fermentation process to occur. At this time the aroma is very intense as the house fills with the smell of the fermenting elderberry.
Next the liquid is siphoned from the bucket to a glass carboy which is plugged with an airlock which allows the carbon dioxide produced by the anaerobic fermentation process to escape but does not allow air into the carboy. It is also fed with sugar at this time. This process is repeated again in order to feed the yeast with more sugar.
The wine then continues to anaerobically ferment for an additional 4 months or more! This process requires patience!
When the fermentation process is complete, the wine is siphoned into bottles and corked.
The wine is then labeled and will be used over the coming year or more!
These photos show the "Early Harvest" Wine, the two carboys behind them represent the "Mid Season Harvest", and the "Late Harvest".
One of the challenges of living in a temperate climate where summers are full of lush growth and winters are very barren, is how to store the abundance of summer to be used in winter, especially without refrigeration. In the past fermentation was an essential technique used to store foods and carried tremendous cultural value. The diversity of fermented foods and drinks was vast, going way beyond, cheese, beer, and sauerkraut! Fermentation is re-emerging as people remember its value and reawaken to their need to reclaim their ability to provide for their needs and health. Of course having said this, there are many people who never turned their backs on the Spirit of Fermentation, and never allowed corporations to take control of their food! We honor those people who have held the form for us all, and we honor the Ancestral Spirit who continues to bring to our consciousness these techniques and practices!
Our Elderberries were gifted to us by Mother Earth, probably via a Cat Bird! We never planted them, they appeared and multiplied! It is vital to always be open minded as to what Mother Earth is bringing to us, so that we can embrace her gifts. By being rigid, and saying "oh but Elderberry was not used by Tainos of the past so we won't use it either" we would be rejecting her gift/ blessings and the wisdom that is gained through working directly with our Mother the Earth!
