I have been growing elderberries for about 8 years. I juice them up and sell the juice in 20 ounce bottles. They are easy to grow as they will shoot out runners that can be transplanted.
I have about 1100 feet of them that I have drip irrigation on. They ripen about the second week of August. We make wine and jelly out of most and sell the rest to the winery

what is your process for the cuttings? I've only sewn berries/seeds along fence rows. Do you use a rooting hormone? I picked about 10# last year, and should have about that again this year. I want to make some wine and maybe some syrup.

How bitter are they to eat raw? Are they worse then a choke cherry?

Elderberries should be cooked to be safe. They contain some cyanide compounds in them that can give you serious indigestion. Cooking removes them.

Elderberry is very easy to grow from cuttings. Both green and woody growth readily root if kept in wet soil. No rooting hormone is necessary. I like to leave 3 nodes on a cutting. I strip the lower 2 sets of leaves and place the 2 lowest nodes under the soil. Then I just water as necessary to keep the soil moist. I don't think I have ever had an elderberry cutting not take root.

Keith

I have been picking up to a 5 gallon bucket of elderberries a day off my bush, for the last 4 days. Today I picked 2, 5 gallon buckets of elderberries off my bush. I think I have harvested about 20% of the berries for the year off of it.




Keith

Anyone use a steam juicer ? Friends who used to do lots of elder berries used one. I haven't gotten juice from them for recently.

We've never used a steam juicer. We add a little bit of water to the berries and cook them over a low heat, stirring occasionally until the berries pop. We then hang them in a jelly bag over a pan. After the berries drain pretty well, Diane wrings the remaining juice out, usually staining her hands very purple. The dry seeds look strange when dumped out in a fused ball and will sit on the compost pile like that for a few rains before falling apart.

Keith

Keith, I can't see your pic.

Had to go check out jelly bags, neat.

All the pictures on Trapperman have been down tonight Doug. I checked and my older pictures were up, but the new one was not. I deleted it and reposted it and it now appears to be working. How are the cuttings I sent you doing?

Keith

Steam juicers are the way to go. Been using one for years. I use scissors to remove also, much faster than the fork method. You can process a lot of berrys this way.in a short time. A basket full of berrys in a steam juicer makes about three and a half quarts of juice in around an hour to cook down. I usually freeze the juice and make wine at a later date when I have more time. Thats the most effecient way I've found to use them.

I see the pic now.

Mine are doing great. A few set berries.

The Elderberry are just starting making berries in the last few days. They were all blossomed out last week and the week before. We have so many its unreal. There more of a weed and they grow really fast.