The Amazing Elderberry
It’s funny, isn’t it, how certain years are just wonderful for certain plants. The last two years, my peppers were kinda’ pitiful. This year they’re prolific and huge. One year the apples are fantastic, another it’s a bumper crop of acorn squash.
This year, for us, is the year of the wild elderberry. They’re even more abundant than those monster peppers, and Mike has foraged gallons and gallons of them. He discovered this patch just last year near where he works, and he just stops by on his way home and harvests bunch after bunch.
Where to Find Elderberries
Here in NE PA, elderberry grows as a tall shrub. A good time to try and locate a patch of elderberry is mid-to-late June when they are in flower. Their showy, large white flowers are found in clusters on the tips of branches, and are easy to spot along country roads growing in moist, well-drained, fertile soil.
Identifying Elderberry
American black elderberry (Sambucus nigra L. ssp. Canadensis) is native to North America and is found east of the Rockies. It is a large shrub, growing 3 – 10 ft. It’s sawtoothed leaves are opposite, and pinnately compound.
Be sure to examine the elder plants stem. The bumps on the stem are a distinguishing mark of the elder. Older stems have vertical furrows.
The purple-black berries are about 1/4″ in diameter, and grow in clusters.
Poisonous Elderberry Look-Alikes?
To the trained eye elderberry and poisonous water hemlock have many differences, but beginners sometimes confuse the two.
Eat the Weeds has a good post which clarifies the differences between elderberry and water hemlock. Remember, when identifying plants, details are important.
Health Benefits of Elderberry
Blog post after blog post touts elderberry as a great immune-booster. Truthfully, I don’t often get all excited about any one “superfood”. For the most part, I like to eat what I can grow, what’s available locally, and what I can forage. But my main criteria is whether I like it or not.
Elderberries are yummy, but I have to admit that it’s hard to ignore the health benefits when studies like this are showing that using elderberries relieved symptoms of the flu four days earlier than those receiving a placebo.
Read Elderberries: Where’s the Research for more great information on the benefits of elderberry.
Harvesting Elderberry
Don’t jump the gun when harvesting elderberry. Be sure to wait until the fruit is a deep purple and juicy when squashed. There is a fine line when harvesting. You want to get them just before they are ready to fall off the bush by themselves because they are so ripe. Seeing the birds at the elderberries is another good sign that they are ready to harvest.
The easiest way to harvest them is to simply cut the entire bunch of berries from the bush. Wait until you’re back home to remove the individual berries from the stems.
Once home, there are a few ways to remove the berries from the stem. Some people like to use a fork to remove the berries. I prefer just using my hands. If the berries are as ripe as they should be, they will drop right off.
Although I haven’t tried this method myself, I’ve also seen people just take a bunch of berries and knock them around inside a 5 gallon bucket. The ripe berries fall into the bucket and the unripe ones remain on the stems.
Using Elderberry
Both the flowers and berries are edible. One of the most important things to remember about elderberries is to never eat them raw.
According to the Botanical Safety Handbook:
The raw and unripe fruit, the seeds, the bark, and the leaves of S. nigra and related species S. racemosa contain the cyanogenic glycoside sambunigrin, ingestion of which may cause vomiting or severe diarrhea.
Elderberries are tart and sweetening is required, but they make the most delicious treats. With the berries that Mike brought home this year I’ve started two batches of wine, made syrup for fighting colds and flu, made a pie and several jars of low sugar elderberry jelly, started a batch of liqueur, dehydrated some and froze the rest.
I consider myself a very amateur wine maker and I’m not ready to give advice on wine-making just yet. There are recipes available online (here’s one from Ariana at And Here We Are). I do prefer not to use a yeast nutrient, and I like this wine yeast because it’s GMO-free.
For my pie, I used the blueberry pie recipe in my old Betty Crocker Cookbook. Go ahead and use your favorite blueberry pie recipe. Your pie will have a crunch from the elderberry seeds. Just note that the seeds can cause nausea in some people. We do just fine with them and think that the pie is wonderful.
To dehydrate the berries, I filled all 9 trays of my dehydrator (this one) with a thin layer of berries and dehydrated at 125 degrees for about 24 hours. And I just tossed the rest of the berries (quarts and quarts of them) into zip-lock bags to freeze for later use.
More Than Weeds
A Foraging eCourse for Beginners
Are you interested in foraging, but a bit hesitant because you don’t trust your own abilities? I created a mini eCourse just for you. In More Than Weeds: 5 Common Plants to Forage for Food and Medicine you’ll learn that identifying plants is all in the details.
Using common plants with which may be someone familiar you’ll learn beginner botany skills that you will be able to use as you move forward. You’ll gain confidence to use these plants for your family in food and safe, home remedies. Get started now!
Recipes That Use Elderberry
Supercharge Your Elderberry Syrup
How to Use Elderberry to Make a Tincture or a Liqueur
So, what great ways have you found for using elderberries?
Thank you for visiting Learning And Yearning. May "the LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face toward you and give you peace." Num 6:24-26
Barbara Melrose says
Dried elderberries are great for flavoring Water Kefir!! I buy them from a great herb company and add them to my 2nd ferment. After 1 or 2 days, strain them out and bottle into grolsch type bottles. So, so good!!!
Susan Vinskofski says
Definitely sounds wonderful!!!
rick says
hi name is rick my wife and myself love elderberry tea and I use elder berries to make wine . I also use them in a blueberry port wine . they are very good fresh or dried. love this article . there is a lot of people that do not know thing about elderberries and how good they are for you .they even have been linked to heeling cancer. I have just planted 18 elderberry plants in my back yard ,dug them up from along side of the road. thank for this enjoyed rick
Susan Vinskofski says
Thanks for stopping by, Rick. We love those elderberries, too!
caroe says
have a bush it that green adn then has the purple as seen but the stem is hot pink or purple and tall and what do have need an answer
Susan Vinskofski says
That does sound like elderberry!
Krystie says
Maybe poke. DONT eat poke unless you boil it three times with fresh water
carole says
what does the berrried taste like taste one to see if tastes of flavor of elderberry..
Skip says
Regardless what you may be told otherwise, the berries are very dark purple to black and they are slightly sweet. People who eat sweeter foods may not think so, but they are.
Skip says
The seeds are very tiny and may be an irritant to those with Crohns disease.
carole says
DOES BERRIES HAVE DARK BLUE SEEDS INSIDE. . THE ELDERBERRRIES. OPENED AND THERE ARE DARK BLUE SEEDS. AND . DID TASTE THEY TASTE. GOOD. . NOT AT ALL SWEET.
Susan Vinskofski says
The berries are brown/tan, Carole. I’m not sure what berry has blue seeds.
Lori says
If you can’t get them locally where can you get them, I see all kinds of berries but never elderberry, I see the syrup, but can’t even seem to find juice, any ideas, are they mostly wild or can you plant some, I live in Denver Colorado.
Susan Vinskofski says
Hi Lori! Yes, you sure can plant your own elderberries. We purchased a few plants here: http://noursefarms.com/category/elderberry-plants/. And you can buy dried elderberries here: http://amzn.to/1txoXDu. I’ve used those to make elderberry syrup.
Rachel R. says
How do you tell elderberries apart from other, poisonous, plants? I’m terrified of picking pokeberries by accident so I’ve never even TRIED to forage for elderberries.
Susan Vinskofski says
Hi Rachel, if you google photos of elderberries, and then of pokeberries, you’ll see that how they grow is very different from each other. A “bunch” of pokeberries is long like a tube, while a “bunch” of elderberries is generally flatter like a plate, or rounded like an open umbrella. Also, the plant itself is very different. Just study photos of both the berries and the plant and I think you’ll do well. Also, get to know what elderberries look like when they are flowering early in the summer by studying photos and try to identify a spot to pick later on when the berries are ripe. Hope that helps.
Manuel says
Thanks I have several trees at the boottm of my garden that I never knew what to do with. I recently was quite ill an dmy neighbour told me about eldrberry tincture , I couldnt source this but picked up both a bottle of cordial and syrup in my local health food store at a cost , and I have a large source at the boottm of the garden . I will be making some this year .Thanks
Betty DeVito says
After I pick the heads of elderberries I usually freeze the whole head and then use a fork to “pluck” the berries off. I don’t seem to loose a lot of juice that way. Since I usually make jelly it doesn’t matter if the berries are frozen first.
Susan Vinskofski says
Hi Betty, I have a friend who does that, although I’ve never tried it myself. Sounds like a great idea!