Elderberries

We grow two varieties of black elderberry: Magnolia and Bob Gordon, both selected from Norm's Farms in North Carolina. We harvest our berries by hand and select the ripest and juiciest to make into syrups and juices.

Elderberries have abundant antioxidants, but more importantly, they help boost your immune system and have proven antiviral effects. According to the NIH, elderberry increases cytokine production, which increases immune system function, although this must be used in moderation, as overproduction of cytokines can overstimulate the immune system. Elderberry is currently being tested for use as an immunoprotective agent for those undergoing chemotherapy, and for treating AIDS patients. At home, you can benefit from the antiviral properties while enjoying the tangy, sweet flavor of this wonderful berry.

Growing elderberries in your own garden is easy and rewarding.  The plants root well as "live stakes" (short hardwood cuttings, taken while dormant and planted directly into prepared ground before the buds open).  We sell live staking bundles of 6 one-foot cuttings, ready for pickup from early February to early March.  Since elderberries produce best when cross-pollinated by another cultivar, we recommend getting one bundle of each variety and planting them near each other for best fruit set.  Make sure to leave enough room for each bush, which can grow about 10' diameter, and protect the little stakes from deer, livestock and the lawnmower!  Keep the rooting cuttings well watered, and free of weeds for the year.  After that, they should grow into hardy, thriving bushes.  You should pinch off any flower buds that form during the first season, since you want the bush to focus its energy on forming roots, not fruit.  Expect to harvest your first crop of elderflowers during the second season (the flowers make wonderful elderflower cordial), and your berry crops every year after that.

You can prune your bushes up into a small tree form, if you prefer, but for maximum fruit harvest, you will instead need to cut back the whole bush to the ground every 4 or 5 years, during late winter dormancy.  Our Magnolia Highbush elderberries actually thrive with more pruning; every 3 years seems to prompt their best berry production.  The Bob Gordon is more willing to keep producing heavy berries on older canes, but even those will gradually slow down with age.  Alternatively, you can allow the elderberries to send up shoots and form a thicket.  Thickets bear heavy fruit crops, and reduce weed pressure.  Always do your pruning in late winter, before the new buds open for the season.  Since elderberry can grow 10 to 15 feet tall, once established, it can be helpful to prune a little during the flowering season to control the height; otherwise, you may not be able to reach all of the berry harvest without a ladder!  Of course, the birds will thank you for any berries you leave un-harvested.

The leaves of the elderberry bush contain a mild natural herbicide, which helps the bush keep weeds out of the understory when it forms a thicket.  Make sure not to plant the elderberry overhanging sensitive plants that you want to nurture, especially in the fall season when elder drops its leaves.

Deer enjoy elderberry leaves and can keep your cultivated bushes from producing much harvest, so give some thought to location before planting your bushes.  Elderberry is a wonderful sprawling, informal privacy hedge and can be planted to form secluded glades, perfect for a little concrete bench in the shade.  In late spring when the flowers open, the hedge will form huge umbrels of tiny white flowers that smell divine.  Native pollinators love the flowers, and birds will build nests in the branches of the thicket.  In late July and early August, here in Virginia (USDA zone 7), the berries turn from unripe green to a deep purple, almost black.  When they are dark and juicy, they are ready to harvest.

Harvesting elderberries is a great family activity, or a quiet meditation for adults.  The berries are born on umbrella-shaped clusters spread from a single stem.  Choose berry clusters that are completely, or mostly, ripe already.  The unripe berries in the cluster will have to be discarded, but you don't want to wait too long, or the birds will harvest the ripe ones for you!  Cut the stem while supporting the cluster with your free hand.  Place it gently in a pail or clean bucket, or even a big mixing bowl, while you select and cut more.  When the container is full, use a hose to gently soak and rinse the berries, since garden insects like to hide among the clusters and you'll want to shoo them off before bringing the berries indoors.  When you've rinsed the berries, you can either bag and freeze them for processing later, or set them aside in the fridge while you harvest more clusters.  Keep going until you've gotten most of the ripe clusters, but plan to harvest again a few days later when more ripen.

Processing elderberries is easiest if they are frozen.  In a plastic bag, shake the frozen cluster of berries (even knocking it against the counter a little) to free the berries from the stems.  Then, pull the cluster stems free and pick off the few remaining berries, and pour the berries into a big pot.  Steam juice extraction is an excellent method for processing them, but you can use any jelly processing technique to make preserves from your berry harvest.  Just remember that you need to remove the seeds.  Elderberry seeds, like many other fruit seeds, contain tiny amounts of poisonous compounds (cyanide-producing glycosides, specifically), and should not be eaten in quantity.  Mashing the berries and cold-pressing through a food processor, to remove the seeds while extracting the juice, preserves the maximum health benefits of the elderberries--but is very labor intensive.  Heating the berries gently to a simmer will make the work much faster and easier, without losing too much of the nutritional benefits.

If medicinal effects are your primary goal in growing elderberries, an easy way to process your harvest is dehydration.  Dry your berries in a clean dehydrator (especially if you live in a humid climate, like ours in Virginia), but use a low-temperature setting.  You could remove them from the clusters after dehydration, but you can fit more on the trays if you hand-separate the berries from the stems first.  Use fruit-leather drying mats to hold the tiny berries in the trays.  The dehydrated berries can be stored whole and used for medicinal tea, either whole or cracked.  Since the seeds will not be ingested, there is no need to remove them.

Safety Note

Be cautious when using any medicinal plants.  All plants are subject to variability in cultivar, age, growing location, soil, climate, stress, fertilization, etc.  Thus, dosage with any herb or medicinal plant is never precise, as it is with isolated chemicals, and caution is required with any supplementation or therapeutic use of plant-derived medicines.  Please consult with a trained professional if relying upon herbal remedies, and always remember to inform your primary care physician if you use plant-based supplements or medicines.  There can be interactions with prescribed medications, as well as allergic reactions.  When first using any medicinal plant, start small and observe caution; be alert for signs of negative reaction and discontinue if side effects arise, until you can discuss your concerns with a trained herbalist.  Natural remedies are still chemicals!  Use common sense and be safe.