if you watch the nutrition facts video. He explains our body’s can neutralize a certain amount of cyanide a day. (unless your proteïne deficient or lack a gene)
However people have been rushed to to hospital from eating raw elderberries. I suspect there might also be a difference from (sub)species.
I think if your unsure, cooking them is an easy fix for possible poisoning.
We all have different tastes. I taste a flavor in them I do not like so stopped growing them. Lee Reich the famous horticultural author tastes something in dogwood cherries he does not like. I on the other hand love dogwood cherries. I look forward to the syrup every year. One mans meat…
I also love black currant syrup. I grow a ton of them. It’s so rich and flavorful. I have at least a dozen plants. I still have bottles from last year. I make 3 or 4 gallons a year. Funny no matter how much water I use it’s thick. I add a lot of pulp to the syrups I make.
Every berry has health benefits. I wish I liked elderberries more oh well I will consume the other healthy berries instead. Discover the Health Benefits of Blackcurrants - Facty Health
We had loads of wild elderberries when I was a kid. Dad always had to have at least one or two elderberry pies a year. I never much cared for the flavor.
With mine, I made wine and preserves. Both delicious!
This is what the wild berries that I harvest looks like…
tiny but jet black when ripe.
My named varieties, Ranch and York are at least 2x the wild size.
I am going to try the method that @steveb4 mentioned this fall… It is actually Mid-to-Late August when our wild berries normally start getting ripe.
TNHunter
my Ribes americanum from Oikios is full of berries this year. ill be tasting them for the 1st time. they said the mother plant is growing under a large white pine and has never got rust. berries the size of consort but not as musky as R. nigrum are. bush is smaller at 3ft. and has long weeping limbs. rather neat looking in full bloom. supposedly the most shade tolerant of the Ribes fruiting in near total shade. its our native black currant in the eastern U.S.
They have their own taste—which I like quite a bit. Elderberry pies are definitely on the extensive and ever-growing list of pies of which I approve! No experience with cultivated elderberries—only wild ones.
So I grow Wyldwood and Bob Gordon which are selected varieties originally found growing wild. Huge Cymes and great production. I don’t understand the non-ripening situation people mention because I am in zone 4b Canada (3b USDA) with last frost in April and first frost laste sept/early oct. Flowers usually in late June into July with fruit end august into sept.
Yes birds attack berries but netting or bagging works. I prefer black currants for jams so now I keep these for the flowers (added benefit birds and bugs don’t eat flowers) and I make a elderflower cordial syrup that is amazing in sparkling water. Go through my growing reports for a detailed recipe.
Elderberry in my opinion are similar to aronia in terms of fruit. They are both super healthy but you look for ways to use it. Typically i juice it and mix it with apple juice.
thats strange as im in the same zone as you and had both of those elders. they grew beautifully and had huge cymes but the fruit never ripened for 4 years then i took them out. left the berries on the plant till nov. then they went moldy. were still mostly green.
This is why I say NO! Elder berries are not edible until a ton of sugar is added and /or fermented
I have ran across elderberries that had an off taste…but the problem I have isn’t that elderberries aren’t edible, but that birds love them same as cherries, blueberries, gooseberries serviceberries and mulberries…and I don’t get many 
There wasn’t this bird problem until DDT got banned and city folks began feeding birds (and feral cats became illegal). 
Same could be said about lemons yet nobody complaints about their off hand eating qualities.
My daughter’s favorite cheesecake in the world is chokeberry cheesecake. She usually finds cheesecake too sweet, the aronia puts a thick “purple” (for lack of a better word) dimensionality to the dish. It helps that I do an almond crust with a tablespoon of single malt but the chokeberry syrup is what brings it together.
That is why I only grow lemons that are low acid low sugar with nice lemony flavor. I don’t know why other grow sour lemons, kumquats, or oranges other than for rootstock.
i dont have a bird issue here other than a few crows pecking my blueberries. even the robins dont mess with my fruit. maybe theyre happy eating my wild highbush cranberry and chokecherry but these ripen much later than my fruit crops. probably have enough to eat and drink as i have a fire pond across the street.
i love sour citrus! i eat calamondins like a orange strait off the bush with no sugar.
A ton of sugar ?
I have never used elderberries for anything but elderberry syrup…
I will likely eat a few raw each year to get a taste… but only a small amount.
My small batch of EB Syrup contains…
2 cups water
1 cup elderberries
1 cinnamon stick
A few whole cloves
2 tablespoons raw honey
After simmering the mix… 30-45 min…and filtering thru cheese cloth and squeezing it real good… you should end up with between a cup and cup and half EB syrup.
Add the honey after it cools significantly but is still warm.
There is no ton of sugar in this recipe… and it works well… get well soon, feel better faster… Yep.
TNHunter
thats mostly why im growing them. i find throwing some black currant with them gives the syrup a more complex taste and both fruits are extremely good for you. i also add a squirt of lemon juice.
I often do add a few blueberries in the mix and that does help the flavor.
So far my jostaberries and red currents have been very low producers… think it may be too hot here for them to do well. I will give them another year. This year off 4 bushes… I am getting 7 or 8 berries… that is if the birds dont beat me to them.
Will have to try a splash of lemon next time.
if your currants and josta berries dont work out for you. try the crandall clove currant ( Ribes odortatum). its native to the midwest. extremely drought and cold/ heat tolerant once established. jerry on here is growing it in z10a C.A and getting fruit every summer. the Canadians are growing it in z2b! it also has beautiful sweet smelling flowers. taste is in between a regular black currant and concord
grape. berries are good sized also.
