I've seen gooseberry and blueberry brought up as OT so I thought I'd throw one out.

I'm expanding my elderberry patch, big time, this year. I've been researching the health benefits of Elder and it's mind boggling when you get into it. If you google "health benefits of elder" you'll get a lot like this  http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Black-elderberry-extract-shows-anti-infection-activity-Study  If you dig deeper you can find this sort of thing  http://www.minnesota-elderberry.coop/Brain_Health-Elderberry/symposium_summary-brain.pdf   Kind of tough to wade through, but, that part about reversing the symptoms and damage of Alzheimer's really caught my attention. My grandfather died of Alzheimer's and having watched the progression of that disease I feel that anything that shows promise of preventing it is worth adding to my diet.

Elder is easier to grow than blueberry's too. They'll tolerate a wide range of soils. They do need some protection from weeds, and watering, to get them going but once established they pretty much take care of themselves. I'm doing rain catchment for water and I just can't afford the water intensive requirements of blueberries.

So, if you're looking for a not-fig elder is worth considering.

Ederberries, sometimes called Englishman's grape apparently make a very nice wine.  I only have a few bushes and it is very difficult to keep the birds away from them.  I add as many elderberries as I can to my red wine to enhance the colour and provide some additional nutrients for the yeast.

I also have elderberry, black and red. I planted them a couple years ago. I've found them to be maintenance free.
I also have goji, service, muhl, and blue berries with sea buckthorn and autumn olive. I've only been able to enjoy the autumn olive and blue berries so far.

A good source for these alternative fruit / wildlife food plants is www.coldstreamfarm.net. Generally need to search for the name to pull up what can't be found browsing.

I have a young stand of elderberries. I have "Adams," "Johns" and a couple wild transplants. To get the best harvests you should have at least 2 varieties, 3 is even better. My bushes made some fruit last year, but they were young. I am looking forward to a good crop this summer. Elderberry are easy to make into a very nice cordial with 1/3 berries, 1/3 vodka, 1/3 water, sugar to taste. I made some last year and tasted like a rich port wine. I should have made more;-)

Also, elderberry and fig make a GREAT taste combination. I made pies with the two last year and they were to die for. I am thinking about some fig/elderberry jam this year. Actually, I have found that figs go really well with most berries; elderberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, whatever. If we have a good harvest of figs this year I should be able to try all these combinations for pies or jams.

I grew some cuttings from elderberry last year and they have survived so far. I put them all in a pot while I am deciding where to plant them in ground. Unfortunately my chickens have recently found the pot and they are almost destroyed. So I put some lava rocks in there to discourage the chickens. I absolutely love all the health benefits of elderberry. We use a cough syrup made from elderberry but it is quite expensive! But it works really well and tastes great too (my reasoning for growing my own elderberry is so I can make my own). I would like some advice as to where elderberry should be planted. Does it need to be planted like grapes or blackberries? Or will it be just a big 'ol bush? Along a fence line? Full sun? Any advice I is greatly appreciated! love this forum, ya'll are awesome!

I have 7 black and one red (Adams). The Adams is in full sun and the black are in maybe half a day at best sun. I haven't lost any. Had to kick off the leaves just to see the mulch mats. 

Elderberries love full sun, but will do OK in part shade. Also, they will grow in wet places that would kill other fruiting plants. I have mine on a low wet area of my yard and they love it! It floods 3-4 times spring and fall, but the elderberries thrive there. My goal is to produce an elderberry hedge on the property line. Mine are 6 ft apart now, should grow to a solid screen in 2-3 years.

Hi,
I have some invaders - wild elderberries - they are supposed to get rodents out of the place.
They smell very good while blooming - both flowers and fruits are attractive.
I bought a "black beauty" last year - don't mix "black beauty" with "black lace" - they are not the same.
I'm using those trees to make a fence to slow/cut the wind-blow that crosses the garden .
Some make fritters with the flowers.
I don't eat them at all - for now .
In 2013, due to the non-spring we had - end of winter style temps stayed in until July- the elderberries tree had no fruits.

I gathered about 16 gallons last year. I wanted enough to take a tablespoon or so every day as a preventative (plus some for barter and some for Xmas presents). It goes real good on my morning oatmeal. Thing is it takes a lot. Half of what you gather is stems, then only about a quarter of what's left is juice. The standard recipe is to add water till the berries are just covered, simmer a while, strain off the liquid, then cook it down. I can't see adding the water up front only to cook it off later. I used a tiny bit of water to start the first batch, then the juice from that to do the second batch... each batch got larger as I got more juice. I used raw sugar to sweeten it (only because I didn't have enough honey), I only used about half the sugar they call for. They're using the sweetener as a preservative so you can keep it in your medicine cabinet. That's way too sweet for my taste. I can it for long term storage then keep the jar I'm using in the fridge. Ginger and lemon juice really dress up the flavor.

When you bring the berries in from the field, on the stem, dip them in a bucket of water to float off the bugs and dead leaves, then layer them on parchment paper to keep them from sticking together and put them in the freezer for a couple of hours. That loosens them up so you can get them off the stem easily. When you get them off the stem refreeze them till you're ready to cook up a batch.

They are a lot like figs to grow. You can prune them to either be a bush or a tree, and they like to put up suckers. I took a bunch of dormant cuttings, started them in compost rich soil, and they all took. I took root cuttings too, and they all took too. I suspect you could air layer them without much trouble. I've got a bunch of cuttings going. I hope I can get them all potted before I have to start on the figs.

Thank you!I know just where I'm going to put them :)

so... when the french guard said "your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries", they were talking about this berry?

[QUOTE=bullet08]so... when the french guard said "your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries", they were talking about this berry?[/QUOTE]

Exactly!

Thanks for making laugh at the memory of that, Pete!

I started mine in full sun in ground, and while they did stay shorter, and make lots of blossoms, I found they sucked the water like nobody's business.  I was surprised they even took the heat here, but drought no way.  Some I watered less went completely dormant during the summer, I thought they had died until sprouts came back mid winter.

I moved them to part sun, and in a wash (low spot, kinda like creek bed) and directed my greywater to them.  They are going nuts now, spreading from underground runners. 

Jenn,
Barton Springs Nursery had little 4" pots last year for 1.99.  They grow fast, but if you want to be sure to get berries this year start with a bigger size just in case.

I had seedlings volunteer on a compost pile, just morning sun and they've been quite vigorous. There's some that I bought years ago that were suppose to be 4 times more productive than wild ones. I put them in a bad location with full sun but poor soil and they never did much... but one clump is still going. We usually get 40 to 60 days in a row without rain in the summer. They've been there at least 5 years and never been watered so they are drouth tolerant. As I said, they haven't done much, but they have survived. I've taken cuttings off them, and the wild ones, and the cuttings are thriving. If you research the different varieties you'll often find that they were "gathered from the wild" rather than bred. I think how they do is more a result of environment than breeding. If you take cuttings from older vigorous local wild plants you'll know that they are acclimatized to your area. They are super easy to start from cuttings.

You can get berries from first year growth. Production peaks at the third year, and they recommend pruning off fourth year growth because it's more into making stems and leaves than berries. There's about a weeks difference in harvest time for each years growth so you get 3-4 weeks of picking from an older plant.

I dry some flowers for tea. It's a great winter tea, it'll warm you up. It's good for fevers too, it'll push you through one. The body has a reason for running a fever. You'll get better faster if you let one run it's course rather than suppressing it. Elder flower tea boosts it, you'll get a quick hot flash then it breaks, old time medicine. Put the flowers in a paper bag (very loosely or they'll mold) and hang it out of the sun but where there's good air movement. They're easier to get off the stem after they've dried. I like the taste too.

Thanks Don! I will head by there this spring and see if I can get a few :)