have you bought elderberry flower pop (soda , cold drink, COLA fizzy drink etc)
I do not drink Normal (or any) pop or have for years ,
but at a discount store outsIde CHICAGO (a church good hope),
and they have stocked UK items
Keep in mind I saw a person here HIS DREAM having a elderberry orchard
wanting to grow elderberry and was distraught
with flowers no need to worry about spotted wing fruit flies (infiltrating the berries )
I hope He doesnât give up I really like that guyâs outlook!!!
The syrup is good to be honest I have some frozen , and have some knowledge ,
but forgot about learning some stuff like the oil of pam spray to stop & lift the glue like residue on buckets (from stems )
most I forgot because I am not making elderberry wine at this moment.
I like how you can sleep under A bush and have strange dreams
not sure what happens when I tried it
(haha ha yes cleared a lot of invasive buckthorn/honeysuckle for my spots
by ripping out invasive monoculture like invasive trees
better then a gym haha ha sober with my guitar )
sometimes A nap is not going to hurt under a elderberry .
Man Hope I didnât sound tp be a jerk
WHAT I mean is notice how Mexican hawthorn is so valued by that culture
Yet people discard it as it sucks no interest.
why would it be a great value yet people keep ragging on it
you must be doing something wrong
Personally I do admit as I have received food (for a Mexican family )
I so did think the food was so nasty Oh My so nasty the way I cooked it plenty of times
until I cooked a lot of different ways I found how it was so good
(I think it was plantian flour tamalies I baked different temps â
yeah just for food like eating baked dry sweet flour until I figured it out then it was so good. â _)
I tried that with POMegranite⌠it had a burst of âFad or Trendâ back a few years ago⌠its kind of lost steam in the mainstream. I remember it cured or helped a bunch of stuff⌠but i think that was because they really didnt know how to market it⌠ive never bought a pomegranite to eat personally.
I do suspect that there will be a bottle of Elderberry juice in the not so distant future.
That may be a good idea to merge it with another juice like POM.
POM-Elder juice? Maybe a dash of prune and kale while they are at it.
I think for the overall health of the plant⌠You let it do its thing the first year in the ground, then let it overwinter. then let it do its massive growth year two then flower then fruit⌠then cut it to the ground after that in the fall.
Alot of mixed information about the first year of not allowing it to flower or fruit. Its a wild native plant in the end and it doesnt really need our help to do what it does. The only thing that it does benefit from is the pruning so that it doesnt flower on 2nd year wood and primocanes at the same time which takes alot of energy.
I think we get about 16â of rain here. I watered last year pretty regular, Especially during and after bloom as Iâve had nice flowers but not gotten good fruit set. the plants that Iâm least impressed with Iâve taken care to mulch really well. Some of the other starts Iâve spread about have better soil but no mulch and they donât get the water they could use as I donât want to overwater other things in my tree nursery/garden. The northside plant that fruited probably benefited from consistent soil moisture where it is. I guess even if I donât get fruit I can take advantage of the fad and grow plants/make root divisions to sell??
If Flowers and no fruit - plants are spaced too far apart. and/or lack of pollination.
If no flowers - they are too young.
Sell where? Locally? The named ones you have are super common so i doubt you will sell many on the www. However locally you could be âthe guyâ It would be really easy to root a cutting that you are trimming anyways⌠and sell for $10 per rooted plant.
Of course you will have to have pictures of how big yours get and the berries to make the most out of your selling locally.
i only prune out weak, broken / spindly canes. if the bush gets real dense ill take out the old wood in the center as after 3 years it doesnt produce much. if you prune it to the ground, depending on cultivar, you may lose a season or 2 of production. better to remove big old canes from the center every 3 years or so.
Growing many fruits myself including elderberry, aronia, concord grapes, black berries , black raspberries and many others these super fruits are compared to. So some ask why then did I decide to have acres of aronia instead of acres of elderberry. There are many reasons! Aronia produce more fruit than elderberry. The two berries taste similar both are bad. Western sand cherry aka Hansenâs bush cherry is equally bad. Here are charts you need to see that explain the orac content which is the ability each berry has to fight cancer causing free radicals in the human body.
Eldon Everhart put together the chart at the bottom based on USDA data. Eldon was my consultant I hired to locate the best berry plants.
For a nominal fee he put me in touch with Harlan who owned HH wild plum nursery and bluebird nursery and Ken who owned Superberries. Eldon worked for a University at the time where he ran an Agriculture program he retired from to focus on aronia. He does consulting and discusses things related to the promotion of aronia like soil tests, location research, variety research among other things. Eldon later established an organization for Aronia. Iâm not trying to promote their agendas for aronia or to get other growers interested in Aronia. Ken sold superberry is my understanding, Harlan died in an accident, and I have not spoke with Eldon in years but I bring this up because I discussed elderberry with them. They were well aware of the health benefits of elderberry and very impressed by them. They chose to focus on aronia for many reasons related to production, Mechanical harvest, and nutrient content. My beliefs are slightly different and I believe it all looks good on paper but selling aronia in the USA is challenging due to flavor. Itâs my opinion we might be as well off to grow blackberry, concord grapes, or other better tasting antioxidant fruits. Consider I grow elderberry and aronia and other fruits mentioned. Blueberries are very healthy and very delicious but I cannot easily grow them here. Black currants are good tasting to me but repulse certain people. Wonder where honeyberry rank on the charts! Have done the field research as well and we know it takes years Aronia Harvest . All that said the individuals such as Eldon I brought up are very dedicated to their cause because of the health benefits from aronia. Healthy food is totally missing from the average Americans diet. Elderberry is the second highest in orac content as noted by the chart so all the good things people say are true. The original chart had acai berry on it and because the powder was used it out ranked both aronia and elderberry. Later acai was removed from the chart because the analysis was done on powder and not fruit. Still use acai myself and personally find it amazing for health benefits but rather expensive. Bilberry has amazing health benefits as well but like huckleberry and sloes did not make it on the charts.
Youâve not had elderberries as mild as I have evidently. They can be less sour/astringent than many blueberries.
Somebody could do a study just like for so many other fruits and develop
good ones to the taste budsâŚor selection alone might get the trick done.
Asimina trilobaâŚselections, then breeding, indeed produced improvements.
Itâs not been done for many fruits. Only recently for haskap/honeyberries.
Correct all fruits need improved. Aronias have been drastically improved in Russia which is where some of mine came from. Elderberry need someone to improve them more. Iâve not had good tasting ones but when you get them those are a place to begin to make the better tasting larger berried crosses.
ive read somewhere seaberries are up there with aronia. honeyberries are a little better than black currant for ORAC values. Romance series sour cherries are actually up near elderberries. its the Mongolian cherry parentage that gives the highest ORAC benefits. i havent seen where lingonberry rates but i imagine about equal to cranberry.
At BBC Good Food we believe eating a balanced and varied diet, including at least five portions of fruit and vegetables per day, is best for health. But whatâs so special about purple foods in particular?
Many purple foods contain anthocyanins
All brightly coloured fruit and vegetables contain antioxidants â compounds which play a key role in protecting our bodies â but many naturally purple-coloured foods contain a certain antioxidant called anthocyanin. These are beneficial plant pigments which give fruit and veg their deep red, purple or blue hues.
While studies are ongoing, itâs too early to say conclusively whether purple foods containing anthocyanins deserve to be lauded as âsuperfoodsâ as they have been in some media reports. Previous research has linked anthocyanins to a wide variety of health claims, however, including increased longevity, cardiovascular health, cancer prevention and dementia.
Which foods contain anthocyanins?
Anthocyanins are found in high concentrations in blackcurrants, blackberries and blueberries, as well as in aubergine (in the skin), red cabbage, cranberries and cherries.
Blueberries are a useful source of vitamin C, which helps protect cells and aids the absorption of iron, and contain soluble fibre, which is beneficial to the digestive system. Read more about the health benefits of blueberries.
Research from Tufts University suggests that consuming a blueberry supplement may be effective in improving or delaying short-term memory loss in rats.
However, the NHS points out that the existing studies into how blueberries might prevent cancer or improve memory have so far relied on small sample groups or animals, and it is not yet clear whether these findings will translate to larger groups of the human population. Read more from the NHS about the nutritional benefits of blueberries.
Somewhere between red and purple, the jewel-like colour of pomegranate is a consequence of its anthocyanin content. Pomegranate is a good source of fibre, and also provides vitamins A, C and E, iron, and other antioxidants such as tannins.
One study found that pomegranate helped to strengthen bones and prevent osteoporosis in mice through decreased inflammation and oxidative stress.
Another study found that consuming 50ml of pomegranate juice per day reduced damage to arteries and cut cholesterol build-up in people with narrowed arteries.
A further study found that a daily glass of pomegranate juice improved blood flow to the heart, resulting in a lower risk of heart attack. However, the NHS points out that as it was a very limited trial these positive results could have been down to chance.
Purple sweet potatoes have recently been in the media spotlight. They are commonly eaten on the Japanese island of Okinawa, which is home to an exceptionally healthy elderly population â with a large number over the age of 100, and rates of dementia reported to be up to 50% lower than in the West. Some scientists think that the large quantities of purple sweet potato in their diet plays a key role in keeping their bodies and brains healthy well into old age. However, to date, there are not many studies into the health benefits of the purple sweet potato, and itâs impossible to say that the Okinawanâs longevity is down to this one food alone.
Beetrootâs deep purple colour comes from plant chemicals called betalains. Like anthocyanins, betalains have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. You can also find betalains in the stems of chard and rhubarb but itâs the flesh and skin of beetroots which are especially rich in them.
Beetroot is also a good source of vitamins and minerals, including folate, iron, manganese and potassium. Theyâre also nitrate-rich, which contributes to many of beetrootâs perceived health benefits. For example, a study from 2013 found that consuming beetroot juice was linked with lower blood pressure.
Another study has suggested that a diet that includes beetroot juice may increase blood flow to the brain, which some have interpreted to mean it may help prevent or improve dementia. However, these findings are limited by the fact that it was based on a very small sample size of 16 elderly people over an extremely short interval. This means that much more evidence is needed before we can conclusively say that beetroot juice aids cognitive function.
So should we be eating more purple foods?
Thereâs no doubt that naturally purple-coloured fruit and vegetables are an excellent addition to a varied diet, but itâs also important to remember that balance is key along with including a rainbow of differently coloured fruits and vegetables for optimum health benefits.
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ive been investigating this topic for about 15 yrs. now and trying to eat more deeply colored fruits and veg. i really love beets and how i feel after eating them. for some reason pickled beets really pumps up your system. maybe the vinegar and spices have a effect as well. if i have a busy day, ill eat a half cup of pickled beets in the morning and it keeps me going past mid day. ive replaced white vinegar with organic apple cider v. with the mother and it gives even more energy. no wonder athletes love beet juice! ive been really keying in on darker cultivars of fruits to grow as well for the anthocyanins. black currants have the highest most palatable levels of them so i have quadrupled the amount im growing. in a few more years i should have enough of them in production to keep me in juice and jam throughout the year. slightly sweetened they are far more palatable than aronia and elder. tastes like a richly flavored concord grape juice. even my picky wife loves it.!
Any kind of slightly fermented food eg. Apple cider vinegar. Sauerkraut etc. Is healthy but combined with a suerfood eg. Beats thatâs incredible!
Donât want to get to far away from elderberries itâs not my intention to hijack the thread. Im bringing up food related items that explain why elderberries might be amazing like aronia or beets its coloring. Can we ferment them? Can we incorporate them in our recipes for sauerkraut or beets?
