I started Elderberry bushes 5 yrs ago....this past summer over 45 pounds of berries from 18 plants. I made wine. Jellies and syrups and tincture. They are a beautiful plant, flowers. I too freeze them and then make all my elderberry recipes in january when its cold outside.
Elderberry is a tree or a bush? Because mine look like trees. Not bushes. I just looked up the difference. I have the European elderberry. Which is a tree. Not a bush.
I find that wearing surgical type gloves helps keep from having stained fingers when desteming elderberries. Right now, here in eastern Ohio the elderberries are blooming! Looks like it will be a good year.
Thank you for the info! I just purchased bare root elderberry plants, which came with planting instructions; however, as in trying to watch planting/harvesting videos online to learn as much as i can.
Wow. I’ve been using my elderberries for a couple of years now. Your technique for getting the Berries off looks good. I will be trying it this year on my berry crop. Thanks for sharing. I am going to attemp making some wine, so it looks like I will be needing a lot of berries
You should not consume raw elderberries. I learned this the hard way. I put a large handful in my smoothie and about an hour later became extremely nauseous and threw up several times. It was awful. Don't make the same mistake I did! Cook them first!
Thank you for letting us know that you do not like to eat them plain @9:17 , "I don't eat them plain, I don't put them in my smoothies. They are very tart, bitter. I don't like them plain but I do like them cooked. I do like them in wine. I do like them as our elixir." I am glad to hear this since I have a wild elderberry plant (blue Mexican elderberry) that is growing wild in my yard ( San Diego/ southern California) and I keep tasting the berries to see if they will get any better tasting. But they are always rather bitter. So I was wondering if other varieties, such as black elderberries, taste any better. So these will probably be good once they are cooked or made into wine, etc... I have heard the red elderberries are the worst tasting kind.
Thank you for this informative video. I am harvesting my elderberries for the first time. I soaked them in water with the stems attached and just pulled them off the stems with my fingers. Many of my berries are black, but many are also purple. My question is: Are all of the berries that float unripe? And can the slightly unripe berries still be used for making a syrup? Also, do all of the tiny stems need to be removed if they are going to be cooked? Thank you!
I live in South Central Virginia...this is my first year having a crop of elderberries. I have never harvested or processed them. When do you know when it is time to harvest them? I do have some very black berries...does that mean I can harvest them now??? Many people are telling me that they will not be ready until end of summer...can someone tell me if mid-July is too early to harvest? Thank you so much
Do you grow them commercially? I was thinking of planting a lot of bushes to sell the fruit but unsure of how many bushes I would need cropping to make it viable and worth it.
When I make elderberry jelly, the sure gel box talks about how much elderberry juice to use per batch of jelly. I noticed you said that to make jam it may call for 7 cups of berries. 7 cups of berries will not give you 7 cups of juice. I’m sure you already know that. Elderberries grow wild in the southeast United States and my mother taught me over 50 years ago how to find the berries and how to make the jelly. We don’t like the seeds so after I mash the berries and put them through a cheese cloth to remove the seeds , I use the remaining juice to make the jelly. Elderberry jelly my mom made was the only jelly we had in the house growing up.
in my back yard is a bush that looks like elderberry but i can not identify it well...the flowers are white and the berries are dark purple...how do i know if this is the real thing..and not kill myself.
