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Elderberry

Elderberries have long been used for healing by Native peoples and in the Vermont farm kitchen. Elderberries are rich invitamin C and traditionally have been used to treat colds and the flu. Modern research has found that elderberries are extremely high in anthocyanins which give the elderberry its distinct purple color. These specific anthocyanins are thought to be responsible for the elderberries potent antiviral and anti-inflammatory actions. This in turn helps the body build up the immune system and fight off some viruses that chemical medicines do not work on.

pictures & story of making elderberry cuttings June 22, 2006

Information on growing your own elderberry plants, on pruning your elderberry plants, & on hardwood cuttings

February 2002

As I was walking away from a gathering recently, and someone asked me about the bees. Wherever I go in northern Vermont, there is awareness and interest in honey bees. People are conscious of the bees and want to know how they are wintering, how the crop is going, or how they are surviving the attack of the parasitic mites.

Lewis Hill with a tray of one month elderberry plants Greensboro, Vermont, June 2003

As I started talking about the bees and how we are now combining honey with elderberry, a group of elder ladies gathered around around and started telling stories about what their parents did with elderberry when they were children. Jam was made, to be used through the winter when someone had a cold or flu, pie and wine were part of the yearly rhythm of the farm kitchen. The ladies were excited to remember a fruit that was important to the family in their youth and that they have not seen much of since then. The elderberry has skipped a generation.

Days after making elderberry, I am still find purple splotches on my clothing. It is a very tenacious berry. At the Vermont Food Venture Center in Fairfax, where we make the elderberry syrup,we learned that elderberry is the only food product that stains the white coats we wear there that will not come clean in the wash. This reminded me of propolis that lingers in our bee suits after many washings.

It is now five months since these elderberries were harvested and 12 years since Lewis Hill told me about the elderberries and and encouraged me to get involved with them. The journey has been a long one I reflected on all of this last week at the end of one of Tim and my 11 hour days in the Venture Center making elderberry syrup. Purple jars with different formulations were scattered all over the room and we were closing in on the fine tuning for the formula. We were on the edge of finding a way to keep our bees' Apitherapy raw honey from crystallizing and the elderberry from jellying up in the bottle and still keep the honey totally raw. Samples were delivered by messenger (me) up to a $7,000 computer analyzing each test batch as we tweaked the receipe.

“Tim, we have made elderberry-honey syrup !” I proclaimed, feeling almost drunk in the spirit as I realized how we were at the conclusion of many years of work.

“We are not making elderberry, “ he wisely responded, “we are deliverying elderberry."

Thank you for your support of our bees and their work.

$60.00 case of six - 8 fl. oz. bottles + shipping.
8 oz. bottles of elderberry, wild cherry, and/or Rejuvenation Tonic may be mixed,
specify in special instructions on order

elderberry cultivars, Coomer & Berry Hill, as selected by Lewis Hill over the years,
both of which are needed for best pollination and fruit set.

available for pick up at the honey house starting end of July 2008, $24 per pair – one of each cultivars.