I’m a push over for the wild blue elderberry. It is an amazing shrub that offers the forager a tremendous bounty of uses. Fire making, musical instruments, hunting weapons, traps, and in late summer and autumn delicious blue elderberries.

The elderberry is a shrub that we cover in depth at our Second Circle Camp.

Wild blue elderberry: Sambucus cerulea and S. racemosa range from British Columbia south to California. S. mexicana ranges from northern California south into Mexico and east into Nevada and southwestern New Mexico. The S. callicarpa species (Pacific red elder) grows in coastal habitats from southern Alaska to central California.

I first began working with this shrub when I lived in the Sierra’s where I discovered that blue elderberry has been used extensively by the local Mi-Wuk community for many thousands of years as an important part of their material and musical culture.

Elderberries grow in riparian habitats, road banks, meadows, and damp forest openings, up to timberline.

Warning! Blue elderberry and more so, the red elderberry, contain the compound hyrocyanic acid, a compound that may lead to mild cyanide poisoning if consumed in large quantities uncooked. The bark, leaves, and roots contain the highest concentrations of the acid. The flower clusters are non toxic, edible and medicinal.
If the elder berries are red do not eat them raw! They need to be boiled before consumption.

A little bit scary I know. However I have grazed on the raw blue elderberry for years, though they can make some people mildly nauseous uncooked, you are not going to die from munching on a small handful. Cooking or drying removes any toxicity from the the blue elderberry’s, and can be enjoyed happily and is fantastically delicious!

A few of the very neat survival applications about the elderberry wood is its soft center pith which can easily be scraped and removed to make a hollow stem. Straight long shafts of the wood can be made into a serviceable “Blow Gun”, and shorter sections of the wood are split part way and hollowed for clapper stick. (A musical instrument enjoyed by the Pomo and Mi-Wuk peoples.)

If you are using the elderberry stalks green, you will want to carve off, strip, scrape, and remove all the green bark, and let the wood dry some.
A spindle made from the elderberry is excellent either for the bow drill or hand drill friction fire making process.

If you are a fan of the Man Vs Wild or Born Survivor series with Bear Grylls, Bear made fire in the Sierra episode using a long slender spindle from the wild blue elderberry.

Now why I really wanted to share with you regarding the blue elderberry. Celeste and I have been harvesting the ripe berries this fall. With great anticipation and delight we have cooked and reduced the berries in preparation for making elderberry syrup. The syrup is the main ingredient you must make first before you make the actual elderberry cream pie itself.

We almost didn’t get a picture of the pie it went so fast.

Enjoy a picture of the delicious pie that Celeste made, (what’s left of the pie) along side the gorgeous Calendula Marigold flower.
here on the Dune Dog Dispatch. , scroll down the page a bit.

Oh, and the syrup is, as you imagine, a beautiful rich blue color, incredibly delicious on home made pancakes, vanilla ice cream, or in elderberry cream pie!
The berries can also be made into an outstanding wine.

The berries are important food for; Western blackbird, House Finch, Red-Shafted Flicker, Ash-Throated Flycatcher, Black Headed Grosbeak, Scrub and Steller’s Jays, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Bulock’s and Hooded oriole, and Phainopepla. Please leave some berries for the birds.

Remember, be sure to positively identify any plant before use, for any edible, medicinal, or utilitarian application.

Recommended reading:
Edible and Useful Plants of California. By Charlotte Bringle Clarke (Great wild food recipe’s including the elderberry pie and syrup I’m sharing here.)
Edible and medicinal Plants of the West. By Gregory L. Tifford

Basic Elderyberry Syrup
1 qt blue elderberries
Juice of one lemon
3 cups water
1Tbsp cornstarch or flour
1/4 cup sugar or honey

Crush elderberries, add 1 cup of water and sugar or honey,
and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain, then add 2 cups of water
to the seeds and pulp and strain again.
Add to the liquid the lemon juice and adjust sugar if desired.
Bring to a boil and thicken slightly by stirring one Tablespoon cornstarch
or flour in one Tablespoon cold water and stirring this into the simmering syrup.
Makes 5 cups.

According to the author of this recipe, “This syrup has few equals when used over pancakes or ice cream.”
I have to completely and happily agree

Elderberry Cream Pie
So delicious!

3 eggs, separated
2 Tbsp grated orange or lemon peel
3/4 cup elderberry syrup
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup of sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 tsp cream of tarter
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1 baked 9-in pie shell.

Blend over heat until smooth:
the egg yolks, elderberry syrup, unflavored gelatin, 1/3 cup sugar, and salt.
Do not boil.
Add grated orange or lemon peel and pour into a bowl; refrigerate until slightly firm.
Do not refrigerate too long, (like overnight), just until it is slightly firm, this doesn’t take very long. Otherwise you will not be able to blend the whipped cream and meringue with the jelled juice.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and add cream of tarter and 1/4 cup sugar, beating continuously.

Beat heavy cream until fluffy and fold half into the egg-white mixture.
Fold the egg-white mixture into the refrigerated sauce.
Pour into pie shell and garnish with remaining whipped cream.
serves 6.

Thank you Charlotte Clarke, for the delicious recipes!

Hi Folks,
we’re going to be close to home here on the Oregon coast for the months of November and December and available for those of you who want to study wilderness survival and nature awareness skills in this beautiful area.

I’m tentatively leaving my weekends open up through Christmas, also during some weekdays for survival training.

We’re also available to work with your group and can make arrangements to travel to your location.

The fall and winter are great times of year to work on fire making and shelter concepts and the many other skills of wilderness survival.

Give us a call -530-859-0539, or drop us an email with your questions.

Winter Camp, An exceptional Lifesong Adventures experience.

Learning the art of winter survival is what winter camp is all about.

Winter Camp is open to Adults with no prerequisites.
February 22-28, 2009. $950

Camp is held just a few miles north of Mt. Shasta California. Nestled within the rugged crags of ancient Limestone cliffs, winter camp is a year around home to Columbian Black tail Deer, Mountain Lion, Wild Turkey, Cottontail and Jack Rabbit, Eagles, Owls, Coyote, and other wonderful wildlife great and small.

Included for your enjoyment is our always famous kitchen fare, yummy wholesome and hearty food (Organic and free range as much as we can.) keeping us warm and energized throughout camp. A group shelter with wood heat will be home for students during your time with us.

At winter camp If the weather is driving snow, we hunker down, feed the stove, and work on our storytelling, moccasins, string making, baskets, musical instruments, carving, and other crafts we can do indoors. When the weather lifts and the sun shines we head out to see what animals have left their tracks for us to follow. Later in the evening we may even fire up the sauna lodge for a late evening sweat.

Winter Fire Craft
Winter Shelter & Survival
Hydration
Primitive Sauna
Primitive Orienteering
Survival Knife
Carving
Axe Craft
Primitive Open Fire Cooking
Nature Awareness
Animal Tracking
Wild Edible & Medicinal Plants
Utilitarian Plants, Trees, & Shrubs
Moccasin Footwear
Basket Weaving
Rope, Cordage, & Knots
Throwing & Casting Weapons
Bush & Cottontail Rabbit Behavior
Snares & Dead-falls
Musical Instruments

Like all our survival camps, we’re all about adventure and learning great skills. Our Shasta winter camp is primitive but cozy, and always served with personal attention and hands on experience.

Upon registration we will mail you a gear list for winter camp. Expect winter weather with cold temperatures. (That’s what makes it so fun!.) You will want to purchase insulated footwear that sheds moisture and keeps your feet toasty warm when walking in snowy conditions.

We recommend that you visit your local second hand stores and load up on wool clothing to wear at winter camp.
Wool gear you will want to have: hat, mittens, sweaters, pants, socks, parka, and outer shell.

Winter camp is not just about the skills of winter survival and living, its about the experience, learning how to endure and deal with the cold, and all the other functions we take for granted when the sun is shining and the temperatures are warm. One of the best things about camping in the winter; no mosquitoes, flies, ticks, and other undesirables.

I have always enjoyed the challenge and beauty of winter camping, its a truly amazing experience. I highly recommend Winter Camp to all our students.

Visit the Winter Camp Page for more information.

See you there.

I love to get outdoors and wander around, especially in the winter months. Backpacking in winter can be wet and cold, especially if your boots get wet and sloshy, but its always an adventure. The benefits of winter backpacking out weigh the downside of winter camping. a couple of reasons: there are generally not as many people out on the trail, and winter storms can always add a bit of spice and excitement to the experience.

I’m excited about our new Backpacking camps. I see great adventures on the horizon with you folks who will become addicted to back country wandering and wanting to explore the many beautiful and amazing places of this planet with Lifesong wilderness Adventures.

Never backpacked? Not a problem click here to find out more.

As I said, it can be wet and cold in the winter months backpacking, but with the right kind of training and information, you can reduce the discomfort dramatically with smart choices in clothing, footwear, tent, and sleeping bag.

Some of my favorite backpacking area’s in the winter are the Lost Coast of California, Humboldt Redwoods, Ishi Wilderness, Death Valley, and of course Hawaii. Or how about a wonderful dip in the hot springs after a great day picking wild mushrooms for a sumptuous culinary feast. Sound intriguing?

We can design and guide a special adventure for you, you and your better half, friends, or group. Visit our Custom Camp Page to learn more.

There’s lots to learn, but if you love to hike, you’re going to love learning to backpack and explore this beautiful natural world we call home.

Yes, I look forward to each new season, there is always something wonderful coming around the corner.

In late summer and early fall its wild berries, yum! The mushrooms will be here soon, the time for harvesting our cordage plants, the Dogbane, Milkweed, and Stinging Nettle is fast approaching, the autumn run of Chinook salmon are waiting for the rains to fill the rivers.

But now the berries are coming on strong, and I relish this sweet summer treat!

The Salal (Gaultheria shallon) and the evergreen Huckleberry are ripening and ready for harvest.

The Salal for some folks have gone out of style. Its not as sweet as the Huckleberry, Blueberry,or the Blackberry. But I love them for there meaty, bland, and spicy taste. On occasion they can be sweet.

The name Salal is derived from the Nootka name for the fruit, which translates as “bland berry” There a working mans Berrie staining your hands and tongue wonderfully with purple juice as you pick and eat them.

“Salal and Huckleberries are both incredibly high in flavonoids, and can be used as a free, nutritional therapy for strengthening capillaries in chronic skin and mucus membrane fragility.” Taken from Michael Moore’s book, Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West.”

You can collect the berries, crush them flat in a box and dry in the sun for use in the winter, or freeze them. Don’t be afraid to mix the berries together. The Huckleberries will give sweetness to your dried Salal mix.

Its not only people that enjoy these wonderful treats. Its telling by the size and the color and the amount of seeds in the scat that the little Grey foxes are leaving here on our driveway, that they are very much enjoying the Salal as well.

These berries have been and are a major food for birds and mammals including us. Its amazing to see nothing else but berries in the Fox scat this time of year. The Bears too, leave huge piles of purple poo along the trails.

Celeste makes a killer Salal pie.

The blue Elderberries are ripening at high camp. Anyone for Elderberry cream pie?

Have a berry berry good time!

There are many parts to making fire. Each part of the process helps to support the whole. Leave one part out and you will not have success.

Fire, the importance of, can not be stressed enough. It provides so much for our primitive camp. The obvious for warming and heating our bodies, cooking and sanitizing our food. boiling and purifying our water, hardening our spears, and digging sticks.

Fire can be an enemy and killer if not treated with respect and consideration. Do not leave fire unattended, or build a fire in a place that has deep duff, pine needles, or other flammable debris.

Choose a safe fire site. Make a ring around your fire at least one foot in diameter free of any debris, pine needles, down to mineral soil.

When you are finished with your fire make sure it is dead out! This means when you run your hand through the ashes it is cold to the touch! Use lots of water for this while stirring with a stick.

If you have no water to put out your fire, take the smoldering wood and set it aside using wooden tongs (Use like chopsticks.) not your hands. Take a hefty rock and crush the smoldering wood, and put it back into the fire pit. Take dirt free of debris, and stir it into the fire using one of the tongs. Keep adding dirt and stirring until all fire and coals are all out. Cap fire with clean dirt 6-8 inches deep to smother completely cutting off any oxygen to the fire.

These woods, pine, fir, an spruce, and hemlock, contain sap or pitch. These woods burn quickly and throw hot sparks with black smoke when ignited. If your sleeping around a fire that throws sparks, you must be aware and keep an watchful eye, keep 5 gallons of water nearby to douse these sparks, and to keep them from burning through clothing.

Remember fire is not a toy, it is a tool to be used with respect.

We have returned to the coast from our June First Circle adult survival camp in northern California just north of Mt. Shasta,
where we offer and teach wilderness survival and nature awareness skills.

A small group of folks from Indiana, California, and Oregon.

The camp was great with loads of sun, rain, thunder showers, and an awesome sweat lodge on the summer solstice.

On the solstice we feasted on game hens and potatoes hot and delicious from our underground oven, and enjoyed a powerful lightning show on the first evening of summer.

An unusual lighting storm because of the long duration. Lasting over 24 hours and starting over 800 wild fires in California,
a solstice to remember for sure.

Lots of wildlife sighting during the week at camp.

Grey Fox
Black Bear & two cubs
Great Basin Rattlesnake
Cougar
Gopher snake
Turkey
Peregrine Falcon
Heard a pair of screech owls several nights
Pileated Woodpecker
Lewis Woodpecker

…well the list goes on. (Read again what showed itself during the week, we’re definitely not one of your typical outdoor schools.)
Lots of reptiles, insects, and blooming plants.

We begin our move to our high summer camp as the long wet spring and cold temperatures kept us at low camp about 3 weeks longer than average.
Looking forward to the rugged high valleys and the pristine creeks and lakes that will be there to join us.

I haven’t had time to write much this spring and early summer as we have been so busy with camp.
Visit the Dune Dog Dispatch Celeste does her best to add new pictures and up dates every couple of weeks.

Oregonians who live here on the coast are a tough lot. They like their countryside green, banana slugs, and enjoy flossing their teeth with moss, and wear rubber boots instead of tennis shoes.

Rain slickers for a day at the beach are seen more often than naught. And after a long winter of fog and drizzle, when some sun starved Oregonian can’t stand it anymore and decides to bare their white legs while wading in the surf, the glare is enough to drive a California transplant crazy.

But even the toughest Beavers and Ducks are grinding their teeth over this prolonged wet we have been experiencing here this spring.

The mumblings of the staunchest Oregonian can be heard rippling through every coffee shop from Gold beach to Astoria. “Man, enough of this weather already!”

Watch out, LA, San Diego and Twenty Nine Palms, a hoard of dripping wet, boot sloshing Ducks and Beavers may soon be heading your way.

Some interesting weather history and information here on the Weather Underground website.

“Did you know that…

Early in the history of the United States, Salem, Mass. recorded a high temperature of 92 degrees on this date in 1816. A day later, the temperature would register at 49 degrees to mark the start of “The Year Without a Summer.”

Read more here at NPR.

If your flying this season to a Lifesong Wilderness Adventures camp or anywhere else, check out Kayak.com

Many of you who are looking for super deals in travel must check out this discount site. A friend of mine saved over 30% on a flight to Prauge this May. Its definitely worth checking out.

If you have used this service or will this summer let us know how your experience with Kayak.com worked out for you.

Thanks.

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Anyone know of a weekend-long reputable wilderness survival course offered in Northern California?

Lifesong adventures, a reputable survival school, offers weekend, survival skills courses at our our camp located in northern California just a few miles from the community of Mt. Shasta California.

Our adult survival weekend courses are an excellent place to begin your training. We’re a reputable survival school, full of information and hands on experience. Our weekend courses are packed with the type of training and information that you need if your interested in learning how to take care of yourself in the outdoors.

Our survival school weekend courses are called mini camps, you can read about them here - weekend mini survival camp

As a professional survival school, we offer our circle camp training for adults who are interested in learning wilderness survival skills through a program that starts with the basics, and through each proceeding camp, advance to the next level of training. Culminating with a “rites of passage” graduation with our fourth circle camp. First, second, and third circles are prerequisites for the fourth circle -”rites of passage” training.

Visit our first circle camp page here to learn more - First Circle