My first day of wine adventures has been balancing on the shed roof at my mother's place picking elderberries. It is elderberry season and while I haven't decided on a recipe or gathered all the necessary equipment to make wine, I thought it would be a fun weekend activity to gather my first wild material.
This relates to the 'when' aspect of my occupation, I've been constrained by the season that I must collect elderberries now however due to modern technology I can freeze my berries until I've got everything else sorted. I also had to make the time during daylight hours to collect them and was glad it wasn't raining as I precariously balanced on the ladder and shed roof.
My mother has an elder tree which had a lot of fruit on it and I know it hasn't been sprayed and isn't close to the road so not covered in fumes. It took me about half an hour to collect a shopping bag full of heads of berries and then I sat down at the kitchen table to strip them off their stems.
This took all afternoon but luckily I had a friend help me for the first hour and then my son took an interest too. This made me think of the chapter I'd been reading in our perscribed text book ("Introduction to occupation; the art and science of living" by Christiansen and Townsend) which talked about concurrent activities. Yes, I was preparing elderberries for a project for school but I also socialising with a friend and caring for my child. Once Taman (my son) and I were the ones stripping the elderberries it was a great platform for me to teach him about elderberries and we ended up watching a lot of different youtube clips about elderberries and elder trees. He enjoyed the added responsibility of helping me and eating sneaky berries when I wasn't looking. Then once we were bored of that we watched a movie together while we continued stripping the heads.
There is a quicker method where you freeze the berries before stripping them, it's a bit tidier and the berries come off easier however I didn't have space in the freezer for the elderberries in bulk and I was impatient to get into it.
I watched a couple of different clips on youtube about how to make elderberry wine so I have a better idea of the practicality of it which I haven't really been able to grasp just from the recipes I've read. I also listened to a few different clips about elderberry wine and elder trees. I wasn't so taken by Elton John's Elderberry Wine song but I really enjoyed this song.
and so by taking up this new occupation, I've unexpectedly learnt about a new band adding to my learning experience. Tarantella also has a song called Mexican Wine so I'm sure that can join the playlist.
The berries are cleaned and in the freezer for the time being. I think I will need more elderberries plus one youtube clip recommended adding a few blackberries, which are also wild and in season so I will be out collecting again tomorrow afternoon.
This week I start to research and collect what equipment and other ingredients I need plus make a time timetable to make sure I'll be in Dunedin when bottling is due etc. The 'how' of the my new occupation.
I will also research the history and folklore around the elder tree.
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