I haven’t always lived in an area where the seasons shine bright with their own characteristics as they do here in Alpine, Arizona. I had lived in Tucson since 1989. During that time, I must have forgotten what changing seasons meant or what different seasons of the year brought. In Tucson there aren’t really seasons but weather defined by time able to spend outside without experiencing heat exhaustion. Summertime is really HOT. Spring time there has perfect weather . Hiking or biking any time of the day in the Spring. Fall in Tucson can be as hot as summer. The difference between Summer and Fall would be clouded with relentless heat. Winter in Tucson can be bone-chilling-cold in the desert but after 10 a.m. going out doors to enjoy the sunshine could be very comfortable, possibly. Most Christmas past I remember warm and sunny in Tucson. Up at 8000’ elevation the seasons do not change without notice. After living here for the last 3 years the appreciation for the four seasons has returned in remembrance to the denoting of seasons in my childhood in Northern California. Here, this year, I REALLY felt the change of seasons because one had to end for the other to begin. The fruit grew in summer and was ripe in the Fall. and I got to HARVEST gallons of the bounty.

Almost everyone, by now, has heard something about the magic food –Elderberries. The benefits of Elderberry fruit and flowers are filled with antioxidants and vitamins. They are said to help with inflammation, stress reduction and have heart healthy benefits. Daily benefits during cold and flu seasons are prophylactic as they help boost your immune system. I live where elderberries grow wild in hidden honey-pot-spots that are coveted. Through the kindness of a long standing, dependable friend who after 20 years finally clued me in, not directly, but in the general area of the trees. I loaded up my dogs and what gear I thought I would need to pick elderberries and off we were on a hunt.  I had to google exactly what an elderberry tree looked like before I left to find them because I had never thought to identify them, amongst many others in the forest.

Through our scouting for the Elderberry trees (hopefully baring fruit), we learned quickly that wild roses and raspberries liked the same soil and topography. That turned out to be great because the raspberries were also ripe and the wild rose hips were starting to mature for picking. I identified my fist elderberry tree farther from the road. I couldn’t tell if what I was seeing was ripe fruit. The dogs and I with buckets, gloves, and plastic bags trekked across the still flowering meadow to the clump of trees I thought were elderberry. It took longer to reach the trees than I had thought because we were walking in a field filled with knee high wild rose bushes that had red berries everywhere. I could not walk by all the rosehips staring me in the face filled with their antioxidants and vitamin C. I started picking rosehips and thanking myself for remembering to bring gloves out of my truck. Eventually we made it to the trees where the fruit was hanging in clusters identical to the flowers that came before it. The above the head picking started. I learned that pulling the branch down to get to the fruit worked well for the hard to reach higher than other berries.

After filling a 5 gallon bucket of elderberries and a gallon bag of rose hips I felt fulfilled for our first harvest. The raspberries looked like the bears might have been there before we were. The free food growing organically in the forest called to my soul so I couldn’t let the raspberries go by without picking the plumpest ones I could find. Next year I will be out earlier for raspberries before the elderberry and rosehip harvest. The natural buzz that the collection of healthy and beneficial fruit made me feel overly motivated me to return day after day to collect as much of the seasonal harvest as possible. I had plans running through my head to utilize the elderberry to its fullest medicinal benefits and researching the multiple applications of the rosehips as a ‘canned tonic-tea’ done with a European juicer with other healthful organics that could be added or dehydrate them for an infusing tea, to grinding the pit of the hips into a facial anti-aging cream filled with vitamin C for your skin (largest organ on your body). I felt extremely excited to participate in all that was necessary to make a bountiful and successful harvest.

When my sister and brother-in-law came to visit in September they too took a part in the picking the elderberries and rosehips. My sister seemed to like picking the rosehips best and she did it without a lot of “owies”! Almost as if it were a Zen-like-experience to her as remained silent and steady in her relentless picking of rosehips amongst the thorns. My brother-in-law and my boyfriend hit the elderberry trees and hit them hard. I quickly realized that many hands -and tall, strong men -can make for lighter work in picking the tall berries! I had so much fun every time I went out I started to ask my friends from Tucson if they wanted to come up and help in harvest next year…. in the Fall. After picking all the fruit I quickly learned it’s a process to get to the finish product. The berries needed to be cleaned and then frozen until I learned how to “can”. That sounds easy but to actually ‘clean’ the elderberries was one of the most labor intensive activities I had ever undertaken until I had to clean the rosehips. Every rosehip that still had a brown bit of flower left on it needed to have that removed. I didn’t know how much help I was going to need during the process as I had never “canned” anything before. Fortunately, in our little community of ‘like’ souls we all gather on the months’ full moon (party) at the lake. It’s a great time to catch up, eat good food, have a toast or two and sometimes meet new-comers brought by an old regulars. The October moon brought me a gift at the party. I asked everyone there “Who knows how to can?” and most women raised their hands. Then I asked, “Who is willing to teach me next time they can?” A soft spoken women walked up and introduced herself as Sandy. Sandy said she would teach me how to can and said “it’s easy!”.

I wanted to believe. I took Sandy up on her offer. The elderberries would need to be steamed in a European steam juicer pot I bought first and then the juice from the streaming process needed to be ‘canned’ via a water bath to seal the lids of the large mouth quart sized jars I found after a month long search. Shortages of canning supplies were and still are directly related to the pandemic, the supply and demand and shortages felt due to delays in deliveries. Regardless, I had the jars that I needed to finish my project and a willing instructor to get me to the finish line with the elderberry. Sandy came over a couple days later and simply walked me though the water bath process. I ended up with 13 quarts of elderberries canned in pure juice form from 11 gallon bags of de-stemmed and cleaned elderberries that had been juiced by steam. Now a quart sits in my refrigerator were I take a sip daily to stay healthy.

I was on my own for the rosehips although I did have interest about what I was doing with the rosehips, nobody offered to help. I researched sources of information about ways to process the hips for maximum benefits. I decided to steam rose hips with Astragulus root together to add medical and healing properties of the tonic I was after. Astragalus is an immune protector and supporter. Given the state of transmittable bugs these days I wanted the most for my tea and the addition added a warm earthiness to the tonic. Not all the rose hips were used in the steamed juice. Two gallons of frozen and cleaned rosehips were saved to dehydrate with the end result being rosehips infusible into hot tea. My electric tea pot has an infusing tube so the rosehips once dehydrated could be seeped in the electric tea kettle and then refrigerated until drank. I love the rosehip tea. I usually heat water and mixed 50/50 with the rosehip tea. An addition to the tea is New Mexico Sage honey (local) brings out natural flavors in a yummy hot winter drink.

Fall of 2021 was filled with purpose and passion. It was a time to reflect, while being outside picking fruit that could keep you healthy in the coming months. I realized that with out the seasons that bring temperature changes and the water for growth we wouldn’t have such a bountiful earth full of magic food offerings that can create healthy bodies and the processes of the food help create healthy minds. The forest offers so much to all of us on different levels. This year I felt a deep love of the forest while being grateful for its food offerings. Winter is finally here and the amount of appreciation I have for the supply of immune boosting agents in store in my pantry while the Omicron variant runs wild during the holiday season makes me feel like I have a private reserve of good for you medicine to keep my family healthy through this continued time of the COVID pandemic.

Maybe its COVID that has brought me to realize the joy that seasons changing has brought me in the last few years. The pandemic has made my life have fewer defining moments or dates to recall to put the last 2 years in context, but the seasons have remained the same bringing me different points of reference than I had had pre-pandemic. The pandemic has brought lots of strife, death and sadness as well as dissolving relationships and ending careers but in all of the negative felt by millions the seasons have brought my life brightness during the pandemic. I’m not immune to the negative but I have tried to remain positive becoming more aware of the power my thoughts. In doing so I have also become aware of what has not changed in our lives since the pandemic. The sun still rises, and the seasons still pass. Each season in Alpine had brought with it a new wonder and light to shine during a time in my life I never thought I’d experience. The simple pleasures of basic living let me renew my love for life while celebrating it now in greater harmony with the earth. The seasons are worth exploring and harmonizing with while the benefits of each one continues to unfold.