What to do with Elderberries?
Delicious and nutritious native berries - the Elderberry is a powerhouse fruit that can be enjoyed many ways!
This flowering and fruiting shrub thrives in wet soil and doesn’t require heavy feeding or rich soils to produce a dense and nutrient packed harvest
With fresh or frozen elderberries you can make -
Jams and jellies
Syrups for desserts, beverages, and medicinal uses - drizzled over ice cream, mixed into yogurt, or blended into smoothies
Sauces for roasted meats and veggies
As fillings for pies, crips and crumbles
Or hard candies. teas, mead, wine, cordials, and infused liqueurs
Elderberries keep for just a few days but are easy to freeze and dehydrate (at 145degrees for 9-14 hours.)
Elderberries pair well with other berries, stone fruits, apples, dried figs, roasted nuts, vanilla, coffee, chocolate, orange and spices, including nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and clove
Facts
Elderberries are a source of vitamin C that can aid in supporting the immune system, vitamin A can help to maintain healthy organ functioning, fiber to regulate the digestive tract, iron to support the protein hemoglobin for oxygen transport through the bloodstream, and potassium helps balance fluid levels throughout the body.
The berries also provide anthocyanins, plant pigments that give the berries their dark purple-blue, almost black hue. When diluted with water, the pigments will create a red-purple liquid, used as a natural food and fiber dye.
Uncooked berries contain cyanogenic glycosides, which are considered toxic when consumed in large quantities and may induce diarrhea, nausea, and other harmful side effects.
Elderberries are essentially unchanged since the Stone Age. A lot of foods have mutated over the centuries including watermelon, which looks almost nothing like it did 300 years ago, and even chickens which looked quite different during the Stone Age when they were first being domesticated. Elderberry, however, is essentially unchanged since humans first started eating them in any quantity.
Bird feeders are a great way to attract local birds and add a sense of vitality to your landscaping. But if you really love birds, why put out feeders? Why not just plant elderberry and other native fruiting shrubs in your yard? Birds love elderberry and you won’t have to spend money and take time constantly filling bird feeders. Or, if you really love your feathered friends, offer them a combination of feeders and elderberry plants
Recipes
Resources
ttps://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Elderberries_1902.php
https://www.rockymountainsoda.com/blogs/soda-news/9-facts-about-elderberry-you-never-knew-until-now?srsltid=AfmBOoqdWMSrHZgibiRY_WUVjSQMa2OcWqbXQRzm1fwel_7svmJEGLLl
