I have grown them for 8 years. I juice them down and put juice in 20 ounce bottles and freeze. I freeze the berries on the stem and then rub them over a 1/4 inch screen
to separate from stems. It takes about 25 pounds to make 14 20 ounce bottles of juice. I have grown as much as 1250 pounds in a year.

I should have said harvest berries not pick them. To harvest hold a bucket under a clump and cut them off with scissors as close the berry as you can. If you try popping them off with your fingers, if they are ripe, they will just break open and stain your fingers

I've been reading up a little on them. There are ongoing trials in Missouri and Oregon. The native Sambucus canadensis is what all you guys have back in the east. Out here we have the red elderberries and the upland blue elderberries. In addition the Europeans are big into elderberries and have Sambucus nigra which is grown commercially. Years ago Smucker Jam company in Woodburn, Oregon grew elderberries and made jelly. It was one of their most popular jellies but eventually after 35 years they quit making it as the cost to return ratio was not as high as strawberries, etc.

I am seeing that some high prices are being paid for the frozen and fresh berries to companies that make herbal supplements.

hmmm,thanx for the info.

I have wild collected and processed the berries for many years, make syrups and jellies. sell a bunch every year local, doesn't matter how much i make it is never enough to satisfy demand.

pcr2...my cousin made elderberry jam every year, he would cut the "limbs" with the berrys on them into a paper grocery bag....put in the freezer until froze and then shake each clump of berrys into a bucket....said it took a little extra room in the freezer but was the most efficient way that he had found to remove berrys from the limb/branch...

I have been drinking elderberry tea almost daily. We processed 40 some pounds of frozen elderberries into syrup. Elderberry was one of the 3 main ingredients of Medieval medicine. Elderberry shortens the duration of the flu by 4 days and the common cold, which is a coronavirus, in half. I have around 20 more pounds of elderberries in my freezer.

I have a huge, very prolific, elderberry bush by my side door to my house. It gets thousands of heads of elderberries on it. There are lots of elderberry bushes in my area. Cuttings from elderberry bushes root almost immediately and if if started early, will bear fruit that year.

I plan on selling clones of my bush later this year.




Keith

I just yesterday mowed off about 1000 plants that were about 8 inches high that were coming up next to my mature rows.

Mark me down for some Keith.

Yeah, me too!

My wife would like some additional elderberry clones as well.

Thanks,

Chris

I had the flu for the first time in my life back in January. I tried elderberry syrup for the first time and I am convinced it got me up and moving sooner, shortened the duration of the virus, although I have no way of proving that.

I would like one of the clones of your bush as well Keith, if they are not all already spoken for.

A friend and I picked elderberries for many years and sold them to a customer who made jelly. It paid for our family vacation many years. One year we picked 2375 pounds of berries. They were all growing wild. We picked most of them along railroad tracks.

I sent PMs on elderberry.

Keith

Yes... After shaking dump the whole fozen mess into a bucket full of water..... All the good berries sink. Everything you don't want will float (stems, leaves, bugs, unripe berries)

Well oldtimers didnt have freezers. i was taught a little stem or a leaf or two would not hurt the cooked out juice at all. So if you want to do the freezer thing you may get a purer product or that little bit of stems and leaves you cook down makes it more effective? A few stems and leaves were definitely in the "tonic" when its healing and preventative property's were first observed.

I think I will continue using scissors, cutting close to the berries, and cook it all still fresh as soon as I get home with it. I just harvest wild berries. They are very common here.

Danny...I never knew anyone quite that old....haha
.

Rod Dog, electricity was unavailable to a lot of rural people clear up into the 70's. My grandparents didnt get electricity till the 60's. I suspect there is nothing harmful about ant part of the elderberry bush. Just pointing out that simply cutting the berries loose, Then cooking the juice out, is another way of making jelly, syrup or tonic.

I remember kin straining through cheese cloth or a clean T shirt.

I have been using elderberries my whole life.Wine,,,preserves,,and my favorite is my wife's elderberry cream cheese pie.Dont eat the berries raw.They are toxic.Cooking or boiling them in recipes releases the toxins rendering them harmless.