Ages ago Miss Cindy taught me about the wonderful medicinal properties of elderberry. I was so excited when I discovered they are native to our area.
Once I started wanting to find some wild ones I asked Pap to help me find them, but he wasn’t feeling much like stogging around the woods with me at that time. I also asked farmer Tim down the road, but he said he didn’t even know what I was talking about 🙂
I kept an eye out for them, but never managed to find any on my own.
Eventually I decided I’d purchase elderberry plants. One of the girls was looking for something to buy me for Mother’s Day in 2020. I said get me some elderberry bushes. You need two for pollination, most places will tell you that when you try to purchase one.
With all the trouble of 2020 those elderberry bushes still hadn’t arrived a year later. I finally suggested cancelling the order.
I did eventually get some elderberries. Not long after I purchased some Pastor Lon and his sweet wife Robbie Lynn brought me some from their plants.
Our plants produced berries for the first time this year. I was so happy! It wasn’t very many, but it was elderberries growing right in my yard!
I gobbled them up as soon as they ripened not realizing some folks say you shouldn’t eat them unless they are cooked. The berries didn’t bother me at all and after doing further research I discovered like many things in life there are two opinions on eating raw elderberries and you have to decide for yourself.
This spring as I was driving back and forth to Miss Cindy’s I noticed what looked like elderberry blooms down the road a ways. I thought I would stop and investigate the blooms the next chance I got. Well several weeks went by and when I finally decided I would stop the blooms were no longer visible.
Recently Chatter said she thought she’d found a gob of elderberries down the road and she wanted me to go with her to check on them. Sure enough it was right where I saw the white blooms.
Chatter harvested most of the berries in the hopes of making us a medicinal tincture to ward off sickness this winter. Miss Cindy made her a believer in the power of elderberry too. For many years she kept us supplied with elderberry supplements so that we could bulk up during the fall and winter to prevent sickness or decrease the length of anything we might catch.
I can’t help but smile about the elderberries being right under my nose all these years. Makes me chide myself for not noticing them before. Being a sentimental person, it also makes me wonder that we found them the year Miss Cindy died.
Last night’s video: Tasting the First Jar of Kraut & Gathering Seeds for Next Year.
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My Sister has planted elderberry bushes in her yard and is waiting eagerly to make jelly. Reading the posts about elderberries brought to mind possum grapes. I miss being able to pick them locally (Ohio). I picked them with Momma for jelly. Momma was born in 1929 and raised near Frankfort, KY. I was born in Frankfort but raised in Ohio, except summers at Mammy’s (my Grandma, the only one we had). Between Momma and Mammy we learned about the wonders of poke, possum grapes, blackberry picking, and so much more. I guess I’ve gotten off topic. Your “Blind Pig and the Acorn” is a joy to read. It brings to mind many things. Most of all Momma and Mammy and the wisdom they shared. And all of the love and emphasis on Family. Thank you to everyone for sharing.
Hey. Tipper and bunch.
In the spring, I watch the road sides for blooms. Then I pay close attention to the bushes as the berries ripen. It’s not uncommon to see me pulled off the road picking the elderberries.
Also, if you see bushes break off limbs and cut them into sticks. They root very easy and before you know it you will have enough to share with family and friends.
A small word of caution, there’s a look alike bush that may be toxic. I don’t know the name of it but it has thorns on the stems. Don’t eat or harvest anything that has thorns.
All in all you are on the right track. You may actually be able to start your own bushes this fall and plant them in the spring. I have a brown thumb and they grow for me. I’m sure you wouldn’t have any trouble at all.
We swear by the medicinal properties of elderberry syrup and have making it for years. We use it a jigger full at a time whenever we are feeling poorly. Works overnight for us usually if we feel off or a sore throat coming on. When we had our acreage we had loads of elderberry bushes in the pasture. Now that we’ve moved to the village my husband goes out along the road sides and gathers them by the 5 gallon bucket full. In my pantry now I have over 50 pints of the elderberry syrup. It is easy to make and works great. I don’t make it too sweet. We don’t use it on pancakes or things like that.
In England elderberry flowers are popular. You can make a syrup with them and that makes a lovely summer drink, when diluted. There are many commercially made brands, some of them are carbonated too. Belvoir Cordials is the brand from close to where I grew up. The flower umbels are also dipped in batter and fried into fritters for a tasty dessert. The flowers are also paired with gooseberries in desserts and jams – I guess they’re both ready for picking around the same time. I think the flowers are also thought to relieve hay fever, when made into a tea.
I enjoyed reading this story of your hunt for elderberry plants and so exciting that your plants produced this year even if it was in a smaller quantity. Surely next year there will be even more. I agree that it is very interesting that you found this plant nearby your home this years and will have that close access to them. I have only in recent years heard of elderberry and the benefits it offers. I will have to keep my eyes out for the plants and use the “Picture This” app to hopefully help me identify them. It was also fun to read all the comments of how everyone has different experiences and memories about these plants.
My son makes elderberry syrup every year. We use it during the winter months to ward off colds and flu and haven’t had a case of either one since we began using the syrup.
Growing up on the farm we always had wild elderberry bushes near the barn area and along the stone wall between two fields. I used to grab a bunch and eat them, turning my mouth a great shade of purple. I never knew they weren’t supposed to be eaten raw, but luckily they never bothered me. Once my grandmother got the idea to bake a summer squash and elderberry pie. Let’s just say it would never go viral on social media in 2023. Yeah, nope. Now that I think of it, I haven’t seen an elderberry bush on the farm in years. I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t been looking or if the poor elderberry has fallen victim to global warming. Come to think of it I haven’t seen any milkweed for years either. The pods were a lot of fun to take apart as a kid.
We have elderberries in northern Michigan, and it seems to me that folks just pick em and eat em without the bother of cooking. I never knew anyone who got sick from eating elderberries, and they surely are tasty!
I have ordered some Elderberry syrup twice now from Amazon. I keep it in the refrigerator and try to take 1 tbs every day. Getting almost time to order another jar of it. Tipper, glad that you got you some Elderberry plants to grow. I enjoyed your story above about the Elderberries. Take care and may God bless you and your family. Prayers for precious granny.
I don’t think I have ever ate elderberries. If any had grown around here in the bygone days, mother and grandmother would have made jelly with them. The picture of the berries make me think of poke berries (sallet).
Ron, I have used the pit (seed) of China berries in place of BBs in my cheap lever action Daisy BB gun, just load them down the barrel one at a time. A poor country boy had to make do with whatever was available. There were 2 China berry trees in my grandaddy’s yard.
I love that you are passing on what your parents and grandparents shared with you, our country is so short on that, from my view. My youngest son seems to what to do everything his dad and I did, especially when it comes to raising his two babies, (that I get to babysit each day.) And you’ll be happy to know my DIL left me a note on the counter this morning that said “Ma’am, your blackberry jelly is AMAZING”…..thanks to you Tipper! Bc we put out a few things in a garden and I did some canning this year (after years and years of not putting out a garden) and the jelly was from your cookbook, the blackberries I had to buy from my farmer’s stand but he picked them that day especially for me (he used to be one of my mailmen, retiring a few years before me.)
I’m sure we had Elderberry and poke where I was raised by up in the holler. I haven’t seen any where we are now.
We make elderberry jam and it’s an earthy taste of wild blackberries & blueberries. It’s fascinating to be able to forage & eat what God provides! My grandmother made elderberry wine & syrup. I’ve not used elderberry medicinally yet, but willing to give it a try!
I buy elderberry syrup local and I can testify it works. In fact, buying some today if she hasn’t sold out! I haven’t seen any elderberry plants along the road but the goldenrod is in full bloom.
Everyone have a good day. Praying for a good report for your mom.
pray for me friend’s of Appalachia, lots of health problems, God bless you and your family ♥️
Norman, I will certainly put you on my prayer list✝️
Norman, I will certainly remember you in my prayers. Please keep us posted on how you are getting along. Sending well wishes to you.
Norman, it’s an honor to pray for others. I will lift you in prayer to the Lord for He is gracious and merciful! May He meet ever need!
I love elderberries too! I have two trees and they have produced very well until this season. Thank goodness I had put up from the big harvest. In one of my herb books they are said to be the guardians of the garden. One thing is for sure and that is they spread quickly.
They are such a beautiful tree. I haven’t harvested the flowers yet but I will at my next big harvest year.
I guess I must have eaten raw elderberries sometime or other but don’t recall for sure. What I recall about them is cleaning out the pith, making a mostly airtight plug then a piston (from a twig), loading a ‘bullet’ of paper and using them as “pop guns”. Cannot recall any growing near our house growing up. They like a sunny and damp place and we didn’t have that anywhere near.
Glad your elderberry produced this year and you found more growing down the road. Miss Cindy still watching y’all from heaven’s gates as God sends His blessings to you all.
Daddy built a chicken house 100 feet long and 40 feet wide. As you know all the flat ground in our part of the country is owned somebody else, usually the goverment, so the upperside had to be built back into the hillside. At one point the bank above was high enough and close enough for a couple nimble young lads to leap and land lightly on the roof. All along that side of the chicken house elderberries grew. They grew other places too, but there they hung out over such that we could sit and eat to our hearts content without fear of chiggers, snakes or waspers.
The neighborhood kids would yell up at us, “you can’t eat them things, they’ll pizen you and you’ll die.” The only I experienced was a little “loosening up” but the toilet wasn’t that far away. That “experience” has become more of a necessity as old age has set in and there ain’t no elderberries near here.
I’m a firm believer in the wonders of elderberry for warding off colds and flu during the winter months. Maybe elderberry can also take credit for keeping Covid-19 away from my door in 2020 when just about all my friends and family got the virus. I stopped taking my daily dose of elderberry syrup when covid was no longer a threat, or at least I thought so. I learned a lesson when I caught the new variant and ended up in the ER. Elderberries look so much like poke berries it makes me afraid to trust picking my own.
Elderberry flowers and berries look like an umbrella and the poke looks more like a plume. Hope that helps!
Love this❣️
This is a great story about a little berry I never thought much of growing up. I have always wished I had learned more and asked more about the native life around me. I dare say I probably had my parent’s head ringing with all the questions about absolutely everything. I loved to listen to adults conversing, even though that was discouraged in those days. I learned a lot that came in handy later when I explored genealogy.
Mom had so much canning to tend to that she never spent any time trying to teach us anything except what was involved in running a home. Later, I spent a lot of time with Dad learning mostly history of family and some important things in nature. We picked chinquapins and hazel nuts etc. because he was a big fan of growing lots of nut trees and even had a secret place to keep ginseng, spreading out with the seeds each year.
This says so much about dear Miss Cindy. Her posts showed her depth of knowledge and interest in so very much. I believe, as many Appalachians are taught, that signs will always come our way. It can be startling how it will be so evident that our loved ones are reaching out to us, maybe through the Lord’s help. It is not an accident that the Hummingbirds my dad loved would come to Mom’s window to remind her. I miss Miss Cindy’s posts!
You should have many more elderberry coming up in the years to come! Birds love them and plant the volunteers. My neighbor started with one wild bush on her property and have many popping up everywhere. We make elderberry wine and syrup. It is a wonderful medicinal plant.
Lots of prayers for Granny and your family.
Sounds like a “God-wink” from Miss Cindy!
I would love for you to show us Elderberry plants on your video sometime. I have wild plants in my yard that look like the picture…but, I’m not sure. I was always told they were poison so we pull them up! Would love to know more!
The story you shared about finding the wild elderberry (which looked plumb loaded down and lovely to me) the year of Miss Cindy’s “homecoming” is not a coincidence. I used to believe in coincidences, but as I get older, I realize they are signs and wonders from above to comfort us and help us in difficult times or even when we need to hear from our loved ones in heaven. Miss Cindy is letting you know she is with you and always will be in her memories, teachings, and even wild things she loved and believed in. She’s also letting you know she’s in a wonderful place not too far off. I’m so glad you got the elderberries before the menacing deer. But who can blame those suckers for knowing delectables and taking full advantage?!?! Blessings to you all this morning and of course Granny and your girls…
Though a native of Northeast Georgia, I have lived in Southern Illinois for most of my life. Many years ago, elder berries grew wild in the corners of fenced-in fields. The farmers couldn’t plow or mow in those tight corners. People made a sweet wine out of the berries. They called it “fence corner” and used it as cough medicine.
Elderberries grew wild next to my house growing up. Mom always used them to make the best jelly. My sister and I also picked them and ate them raw all the time. I never see any wild ones anymore. I need to open my eyes and really look for them. I know we can’t plant any in our yard—We have herds of deer wondering around every night.
I planted elderberry bushes this spring. one is growing well the other survived the weed eater, but hasn’t fully recovered. I am hoping for rapid growth come spring. I too love elderberry syrup.
Miss Cindy was right smart to suggest elderberry! Old ways are treasures!
We make elderberry syrup for the winter months. We also love jelly! Momma, my younger brother and I would always hunt them when we were little. Momma’s great grandfather was an herbalist and a doctor during the Civil War, so they grew up hunting all over the mountains for things that prevented and cured. Someone stole all his journals of medicinal herb uses. What a treasure that would have been to us now. I’m sure that knowledge was passed down is how Momma’s family knew so much..
I have been studying herb uses for about 5 years now. I love learning all the old ways. I hope you’ll share more things y’all do with herbs.
We had three elderberry plants in the back yard until out local deer decided they also like them. They ate them right down to ground level several times. We gave up on the bushes and let the Pennsylvania wildlife have their share.
Growing up on Fork Creek here in East Tennessee, the farmer up the creek supplied our Daddy with homemade elderberry.
Have no idea how it tasted cause Daddy wouldn’t let us kids have any. He was smart to keep us out of it. …for what it’s worth Daddy was healthy so maybe the homemade brew had something to do with it.
A circle of 5- or 6-foot wire mesh around each plant will keep the deer from reaching them. We call them “excluders.”