How to process your Elderberry harvest quickly!

After seeing lots of folks take hours and hours to pluck each Elderberry off it's stem I thought you all might appreciate this tip. I can get gallons and gallons of berries separated from stem in under an hour and now so can you!

[patsyvanhouton]

Thank you I missed this by an hour. Just did all that the hard way...thank you for all your help. We are all very fortunate that you share your knowledge with us.

[jamiekerbleski]

I was just given a bag full. Totally popping them in freezer tonight to try this trick. Thank you

[skyricharde]

Yet another wonderful thing my 20k herbal education did NOT teach me. Simple shit like this is what makes an herbalist a true medicine maker.

[kimprocarione]

You are so clever!!!! I love this! I love getting around tedious tasks!!! Thank you again! 💓

[deniwest]

Oh thank God I watched this I'm about ready to throw these elderberries out the kitchen window after 6 hours working on them! Now I put the rest in the freezer, thank you! New sub!!

[caragreene]

Thank you, I have not done my elderberries just yet, but at least I have waited because now I can follow your advice and do this instead. You are the best :)

[debjohansen]

You are so brilliant and thanks for sharing! Now I can go wild woman picking elderberries!

[michaelmorgan]

I had already planed on freezing my blooms after soaking to remove the bugs ( they mostly float to  the top ) but this confirms my ideas about freezing . Oh, and the berries seeds and stems contain cyanide but boiling and simmering for about  40 minutes should take care of that . thank You for this video.

[jemmaseen]

No joke this is the best easiest hack ever. I processed nearly a quart of elderberries last night and it took maybe 10 minutes. I was left with minimal stems, clean fingers and no mess. Thank you April!

[marychilds]

Thank You for this great way to process elderberrys. I just did a 5gal. bucket the hard way!! UGGH! Will be doing this next time!

[marilynroberts]

well, iam 2 yrs late with this, but a huge thanks April. what a great suggestion. you are a wealth of information on EVERYTHING GREEN...

[rebeccahartleroad]

Perfect! I was looking for a faster way, and I've never seen this! It will save me HOURS!
Be well, happy picking <3

[mitchjones]

Well I'll definitely put them in the freezer now I I used to pull them off like you are but I did wind up a lot of stems in there just looks much simpler thanks and I appreciate what you do

[KeyClavis]

lol - this is how I've been destemming my grape harvest. I love those grapes, they taste wonderful, but since they're a wine grape, they don't make the best jam and don't dry well. Freezing them, though, is amazing! I generally end up freezing about 8 gallons of grapes every year.

Maybe I should try making some wine next year.

[KidcessoryHaven]

This is a great ‘how to’ video!!

- Lisa

[Michael-spp]

If you are going to steam juice them, I don’t even remove the berries from the stems. I just put the clumps of berries and stems in the juicer. The cyanide compounds that are present in low concentrations in the stems are inactivated by heat and made harmless by the steam juicer. I’ve tried with and without stems and there’s no difference in taste of the resulting juice. Thanks for your video!

[VYVEVideography]

That makes sense, thanks for making our life easier! You are the best!~

[moonharp]

I've spent hours with a fork, stripping all the berries. Never again. And I think they'll juice better this way, too. Thank you.

[thefirstnoob]

Thanks, I thought of going out and cutting them and bringing them in to pull off but freezing them looks a lot easier.

[leescazighini]

Thanks, harvesting wild berry's here in the Diablo Range in central California--had a 5 year fruit set here---mucho berry's on my ranch & public land..we are loading up!