Just in case anybody needs the info. We grow elderberries commercially, mostly the two kinds Nova and York, because they work well in our area. You do normally need two bushes for better fruiting. They grow very easily, you can even propagate them from cuttings. The best time for that is early spring, but we have done this in summer as well, just to see if it works. It's just more work then. Our family uses them for their general health benefits, including the flu. We grow them, because I grew up in Germany, and that is what my grandma used as a first remedy when any of us got sick during the flu season. You can read up about it very easily by googling the health benefits of elderberry. Early this year our 3 month old got the RSV virus at the sitters. We started her on one teaspoon of elderberry juice, three times a day. All the other kids at the sitters were in the ER and looked like the walking dead for over a week. She started to get it, but never developed the fever or the accelerated heart beat. Of course we first saw her pediatrician, he put her in the hospital, for observation. I stayed with her over night. Like I said above, she didn't get the accelerated pulse, never broke a temperature. She did get a little hoarse and she did get a full nose. They sent us home the first morning, because there was nothing else they could do for her. After four days she was done with all of it. She is nine months old now, and except for that one time she got sick at the sitters, she has not been sick a single day. Just like the rest of the family she receives a little bit of elderberry juice in her diet each day. We drink it ourselves, instead of pop. Sometimes we mix the juice with other juices. We also make jelly from it, not really for the health benefits, but because it tastes great. My recommendation is, if you plant bushes, be aware what kind they are. Red and Blue elderberries do not have the same benefits and some are not healthy. There are many kinds sold, several of them because of their high yields. Don't go for that. We tried many of them, and yes the yield is higher. What they forget to tell you is, the pest with the biggest problem for us is the Japanese beetle. They like most of the varieties. They leave Nova, York, Bob Gordon and some other ones alone. Those beetles can defoliate a bush in a few days. We like the proven performers. Plus, their berries are bigger and sweeter. That's another thing, they don't all taste good. When do you harvest? Your window is kind of short. You harvest the berries when are black and starting to become dull. They go from shiny to dull in a few days. Shortly after they become dull, they will fall off the bush. At the dull stage, they are easy to de-stemm and they a little sweeter. We usually use a machine for taking off the stems. If you don't have one, you can stick them in a big plastic bag and freeze them overnight. The next day you take the bag out of the freezer. You can now shake the berries right off the stems. Plus, the freezing takes a little of the bad taste off too. Anyway, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.
|