learn to harvest elderberry with us

Wondering how to harvest elderberry? You’ve come to the right place!

While my family and I were on a camping trip over in eastern Washington, we knew elderberry would be in season. But we didn’t know just how much we’d end up finding! It seems like once your eye is fixed on a plant, it’s nearly all we could see. The sheer amount of elder trees we saw simply driving along mountain roads was incredible. This plant is abundant, to say the least.

The abundance didn’t stop us from practicing sustainable and safe foraging, though.

safe & sustainable harvesting

It’s essential that we show respect to the earth and her offerings, no matter the circumstance.

READ MORE >> best practices to follow while foraging

Now that we’ve got best practices out of the way, let’s dive into the elder plant!

blue elder, sambucus cerulea

Blue elder, different from black elder (Sambucus nigra) as well as red elder (Sambucus racemosa), is most prominent east of the Cascades as far as Washington state goes. Here at the farm, we’ve got red elder growing all over the place. That’s because red elder tends to grow in wet forests and fields, especially on the Washington and Oregon coasts. Our farm is on beautiful Whidbey Island, so this makes perfect sense.

However, blue elder is our berry of choice here in Washington. While some folks choose to craft medicine with red elderberries, they do contain more of the toxic compound that’s found in blue & black elderberries as well. So it’s crucial that you cook it well and don’t eat too many. I’d suggest the same with blue elderberries too since we’d rather remain on the safe side when it comes to toxicity.

All that said, elder has some incredible medicine properties. Both the flower and the berry can be used to craft medicine. The flower is useful for allergies as well as skin ailments. It also induces sweat, so it can be a great herb to help break a fever.

Elderberry is most commonly used as an immune tonic and an antiviral. Our entire family uses elderberry syrup as a preventative treatment during cold and flu season. Even our one year old daughter, Juniper, loves the taste. We also ramp up on elderberry during the onset of a cold to help our bodies fight it off.

how to spot elder in the wild

When you go to harvest elderberry, the first step is learning to spot an elder tree. The leaves are

The berries are quite tiny although they can have fairly large clusters, sometimes even weighing down the branch of the tree. Blue elderberries have something called a bloom on them, which causes them to appear silver. The bloom protects the berries from UV radiation, desiccation, and excessive moisture.

creating medicine

I have a few ideas for what to mix up utilizing this wonderful plant. I’ll most definitely be creating an elderberry syrup of some sort. Other than that, I plan to dry some elderberries for tea along with crafting a couple different oxymel variations. You’ll have to follow along to see what it is I end up crafting. I’ll be sure to share the recipes I go with. But first, we toss the entire bucket of elderberries into the freezer to make our efforts of getting them off the stem an absolute breeze. I highly recommend this hack if you plan on processing your own elderberry harvest!

Thanks for learning to harvest elderberry with my family & I. We hope to see you on another harvest soon.

all my love,

Kaitlyn

Are you interested in learning more about herbalism? The Herbal Academy is where I learned (and continue to learn) from. Check it out here.