September has come and so has the elderberry harvest. Here on the farm I only have a few elderberry bushes that were planted from small bare root starts a couple years ago, so they are still young and not very productive.  I was only able to get enough elderberry to make some tincture and infused honey, which I am so excited about, however that isn’t quite enough to meet the needs of my ten person household through the winter.

Many people around here and in many parts of the country forage for elderberries, they grow prolifically along ditches, creeks and up canyons. I have never wild foraged for elderberries, the farm is in a dry area and to find elderberries we must make a trip up to the mountains and find an area to forage that isn’t part of the National Park system (it is illegal to forage anything without a permit) and hasn’t already been found and harvested.  That is  a big time commitment with no guarantee of a harvest.  Instead I order dried, organic berries to make syrup with. Someday soon I will have enough of my own berries as we plan to add more bushes to the farm.

I have had great success in the past with my elderberry syrup in building my family’s immune system and shortening the duration of colds and  the flu. This year I decided to make extra and sell at my farm stand, the first week I completely sold out. I am excited to add this to our offerings this fall and throughout the winter.