It's Time to Harvest Elderberries

Name: Pure Elderberry Extract (8 oz.)
Brand: Norm's Farms
SKU: 9090-08-01
Price: 21.49 USD
Availability: InStock

Dark Purple and Ready to Pick!

At Norm’s Farms, we’re heading into the harvest season. Getting everything set up to clean, process, and freezing our American elderberries. Elderberries ripen quickly and virtually all at once; they go from green to dark purple in just a period of weeks. That means from about mid-July to mid-August every year, it’s all-hands-on-deck. We usually pick the same plants 2-3 times, as each week, more stems turn darker purple from green and maroon.

Elderberries are an exceptionally perishable fruit, which is why you never find them fresh at the farmer's market or at your local grocery store. When it’s go-time, we have less than 12 hours to process our picked berries. Due to the heat, we pick starting at dawn for four hours and then clean and destem them for the next four hours out of the hot sun. After processing, we store them in freezers until we’re ready to cook and make them into Pure Elderberry Extract and Wellness Syrups.

How to Harvest Elderberries at Home

If you are growing your own elderberry. It’s good to note that while a small crop of elderberries may be produced in the plant’s first year, the most productive harvest time for elderberries will be after the plant matures, often in its third year after planting. That’s because elderberries send up a bunch of new canes each year. The canes attain their full height within the first season and develop lateral branches in the seasons after. Flowers (and later fruit) are developed on the tips of the new growth, especially on the laterals. Therefore, your matured elderberry canes are the most fruitful.

Equipment for Picking

If you’re ready to harvest your own elderberries, make sure to have the following tools handy:

Garden shears
Shallow box or collection container
Cleaning bucket
Gloves (optional -- but highly suggested!)

Tip: Elderberries don’t store well, so only pick on days when you have time to process and use or preserve them ASAP.

Friendly Reminder: Elderberries require careful processing before consumption; as astringent, raw berries can cause upset stomach and illness. But when harvested and prepared correctly, elderberries are safe to eat and offer loads of immune boosting benefits. Use your seedless, cooked berries in desserts, sauces, or jams, or try our Norm's Farms Pure Elderberry Extract to skip the fuss.

How To Pick Elderberries

1. When you find a cluster that’s ripe, support the berries gently with one hand. With the other, use your shears to cut the main stem about an inch or so above the cluster. (You can crush one or two berries between your fingers to check for ripeness. Harvest the berries when they are almost black, crush easily and the juice is red.)

2. As you harvest, lay each cluster in a shallow box or collecting container. Be sure not to squish the berries down into your container. Just let them gently rest on top of one another as you go, until the container is full or until you’ve finished harvesting for the day.

3. Strip the ripe berries from each fruit cluster and place them in a bucket filled with water. Discard the stems and any green or under-ripe elderberries.

4. Swirl the berries in the bucket gently with your hand. Skim off the finer stems and unwanted plant material that rises to the surface of the water. Drain the berries and process or freeze the crop promptly.

4.6

Pure Elderberry Extract (8 oz.)

$21.49

100% Money Back Guarantee

Norm’s Farms Pure Elderberry Extract is made from farm-fresh North American elderberries (not from European concentrate). Our Extract formula is very simple…we use a gentle water process to extract the elderberry and remove the seeds before we bottle it.

Our Pure Elderberry Extract tastes great, like a dry red wine: it’s not sweet, and it’s not bitter. You won’t find any added alcohol, sugars, artificial sweeteners or ingredients in our products. Elderberry contains higher levels of antioxidants than blueberry, sweet cherry, tart cherry, noni, goji, pomegranate and cranberry juices.

Ingredients: Elderberry, water,* malic acid** (less than .03% by volume)
1. 8 fluid ounce reusable, recyclable glass bottle
2. Contains no alcohol
3. Contains no fillers, like glycerine
4. Refrigerate after opening