Freeze Dried ElderBerries

Freeze Dried American Elderberries - 2, 4 x 1oz. pouches or 1 x 8oz. 
$27 to $70/ 
(includes shipping
 to USA addresses.)

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Freeze dried native elderberries are great whole for salad toppings, smoothies and added to cereals - especially a muesli or granola, or you can easily smash them to a powder. [Also, see the YouTube video below.]

Flat rate online orders may only be made for USA delivery including Hawaii & Alaska as provided for by the USPS Priority Mail’s flat rate boxes. Labels are not used on packs for orders of 6 or more oz. For larger orders of freeze dried elderberries, please email Chris Patton, info@midwest-elderberry.coop. Total price will be quoted in advance and invoiced upon your approval before shipping. We have shipped to Canada in the past by arrangement in advance. 

Freeze drying generally preserves 97% of berry nutrients. It simply removes the 80% of water with the least amount of nutrient degradation. Thus, a 1 oz./1 cup pouch of freeze dried berries is about the same as 5 oz., or a little over 2 cups of fresh or frozen berries. 

The prices shown include shipping via USPS Priority Mail in boxes to reduce the chance of crushing. 

[To place an order, please click on the link when present. No link means there’s no product immediately available. Please note: the price in the picture is from 2019. Elderberry prices from the growers went up this year due to tightness of supply.]

Quantity

We only sell berries from our grower network. The freeze dried berries we have available were grown sustainably. Certified organic freeze dried berreis can be ordered in advance.

The freeze dried American elderberries come in 1 oz. sealed pouches as pictured. The dryer is stainless steel, and it dries from 2-2.5 cups of frozen berries for about 28 hours to make the 1 cup = 1 oz. of freeze dried berries.

As is typical of our mostly hand processed elderberries, you will find a few bits of dried stem and berries that are not fully ripe but safe to eat. This is due to the natural ripening strategy of native elderberry. Even when the cyme of berries looks ripe, there are a few not quite there. We do our best to skim those off when processing, but a few usually escape us. Even the powder left in the pouch has anthocyanins in it. If you wash it out with a little water, the water turns blue, and I drink it.

Three Recipes made with 1oz./1 cup of Freeze Dried Elderberries: Cordial, Chutney & Shrub

Every HOMESTEADER should GROW this berry! Elderberry - YouTube


Watch Terry Durham make cuttings with Homesteaders Doug & Tracy. About half way through this video, Terry concludes with three recipes made with freeze dried elderberries. The Elderberry Cordial is made with 1 cup of freeze dried berries, 2 cups of tea (water + cinnamon & cloves) and 1 cup of honey. Berries are strained and re-used to make a chutney. The shrub is made with 1 cup of freeze dried berries, 1 cup of good apple cider vinegar, and 1 cup of honey. Any hydrated or used freeze dried elderberries may be eaten. I add them to my hot cereal or make a sauce with them.

Comments about elderberry syrups made with our freeze dried berries: “easy to make”, “smooth taste”, “delightful flavor”.

Are Raw Native Elderberries Safe? 
A multi-year project ending in 2018 by University of Missouri researchers discovered that ripe native (Sambucus canadensis) black elderberries and their seeds do not have any meaningful level of glycosides (pre-cyanides) that can make one sick. [Note: Ripe native (S. canadensis) berries often appear more reddish in color than the European (nigra) berries, which is probably due to the additional anthocyanins found in the North American condenses cultivars. Native berries are also quite a bit smaller.]

This does not seem to be true for European Sambucus nigra elderberries, which have a history of production processes to neutralize the potential issues related to glycosides. That is why those imported ingredients are more processed and may also be part of the reason why native elderberries taste better than the European ones.

While the latest research at the university of Missouri (soon to be published) indicates that fresh/frozen, ripe elderberries do not have significant levels of glycosides, some few people seem to be strongly affected by consuming raw elderberries or elderberry juice, where it upsets their digestive system. Why they have a lower tolerance for elderberry is not clearly understood. Fresh and raw frozen berries that are fermented or heated so that the entire volume reaches 180° F, or more have not been associated with any health related incidents to our knowledge

Technical Note: Cultivar “Marge” was not a part of the above study and is likely to have more glycosides present since it is classified as an American adapted European Sambucus nigra. (4/9/2019 email from Andrew Thomas lead researcher UMO)

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