Harvesting Elderberries: Picking, Preserving & Recipes

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Get ready for elderberry season with my handy guide to picking, preserving and cooking with elderberries. Find out all you need to know about making the most of your elderberry harvest.

Harvesting elderberries starts in late summer and carries on into Autumn in the UK and Europe.

We love elderberry season here at the Kitchen Shed. I pick their flowers in spring time and make Elderflower liqueur. Always leaving plenty of flowers on the trees to produce elderberries to make Elderberry vinegar and Elderberry Jelly.

Once the elderberries are almost black and hanging heavily on their stems we’re ready to pick them. They won’t be around for long after the local bird population make their move.
Birds are clever creatures with a canny sense for ripe fruit. I’d decided to wait one extra day for the elderberries to ripen just a little more. Next day when I went out with my scissors and basket almost half the fruit had disappeared !

Full of antioxidants to aid healthy cell production and packed with Vitamin C, elderberries have all the qualities of a superfood and they’re free !
There’s an abundance of elderberries out there ready to be picked and preserved and the beauty of elderberries is that you don’t need to live in the countryside to get a good harvest – you’ll find elderberries in parks, gardens and alongside footpaths in the city too.

When to harvest elderberries

You’ll find ripe elderberries anytime from the middle of August through to October. A hot summer will give an early elderberry harvest.
The best time to pick elderberries is when they are purple to black in colour. Elderberries need to be fully ripe as the unripe berries can cause tummy upsets so make sure you pick the berries when they are almost black, a few red ones won’t matter but you definitely want to discard the green ones.

Where to find elderberries

You’ll find Elderberries AKA Sambucus nigra in hedgerow, bushes or trees depending on where they grow. At the Kitchen Shed we’ve let our elderberry bushes grow into trees. Look out for local elderberry trees or bushes on parks or in the countryside.
Make sure you have positively identified that they are elderberry bushes or trees. You may have seen them back in the spring with umbels of tiny cream flowers. The flowers drop off and elderberries are produced turning purple to black when they are ripe.

How to pick elderberries

• Choose a bush or tree that is free from pollution, in the city you’re more likely to have the problem of roadside exhaust fumes and in the countryside insecticide spraying.
• Another tip is not too pick lower than a labradoodle can raise its back leg.
• Take a pair of scissors with you along with a paper bag or basket, the berries are rather juicy and can easily stain your clothes.
• Pick on a warm sunny day otherwise your fruit will have added water and they won’t be as tasty.
• Cut whole clusters of ripe elderberries from the tree and remove the berries later.
• Always leave some for the birds and other foragers.
• Pick ripe fruit – you can feel the difference in the berries anyway once you start stripping them from the stems, the ripe berries are soft and juicy and unripe are hard as bullets.
• The leaves and stems of the elderberry are toxic so discard them after picking.

What does elderberry taste like ?

Tasting a bit like a blackberry but more sour and with a slightly earthy taste, elderberries are delicious in wine, fruit vinegars, jellies and baking to add an extra dimension to both sweet and savoury dishes.

How to use and preserve elderberries

Elderberries can be used in a variety of ways from simply freezing or drying them for later use or cooking straightaway.

The first job you need to do is to give them a thorough wash, this is far easier done before you strip the berries from the stems. You tend to find all sorts of creepy crawlies on the berries from spiders to ants.

Clean and prepare

• The easiest way to wash them is to fill a large bowl with water and add the elderberries swishing them around to dispel any unwanted debris or insects which usually rise to the surface so you can skim them off. Sometimes a second rinse is required depending on the state of your elderberries.
• Stripping the berries can be a messy job – if you don’t fancy yourself with purple fingers you might want to use food grade gloves.
• Pick off and discard any unripe fruit, leaving the purple (ideally almost black) berries on the stems.
• At this point you can open freeze your bunches of berries for later use – once frozen the berries come off the stems easily.
• Whether fresh or frozen, a fork makes light work of stripping the berries from the stems just as you would with redcurrants.

OH and I did a comparison between using fingers and forks to strip the berries but there really wasn’t much difference time wise or in effort, so it’s a case of doing whichever you find easiest.

Freezing

Place the cleaned fully ripe berries still on their stems on trays and open freeze them for a couple of hours before transferring them to a container or freezer bag.

Freezing the berries is a really easy way to deal with your berries, particularly if you’re pushed for time. The berries are much easier to strip off the stems when the fruit is brittle, in fact you’ll find the berries start dropping off the stems when you place the open frozen berries into a container.
I would recommend only large juicy ripe elderberries for freezing, smaller less ripe fruit tend to stay with their stems.

How to dry elderberries

Elderberries have a fairly short shelf life so once picked it’s best to get them preserved as quickly as you can.
In the UK, the temperate climate means the best way to dry elderberries is to use a dehydrator – I have tried drying fruit in a low oven with the door open but the results were inconsistent.

A dehydrator uses less electricity than an oven and these days there are plenty of good value dehydrators on the market. My Excalibur is in use throughout the year and I wouldn’t be without it.

Dehydrator times and temperature:

• Place your cleaned and dry elderberries on trays.
• Place them in your dehydrator at 135 ℃ / 250 ℉ for approximately 10 hours, turning the trays around half way through drying.
• Your berries want to be thoroughly dried out to ensure they keep. Going to the trouble of drying fruit or vegetables only to find they’ve grown a fur coat when you come to use them is very disheartening.
• Store your dried fruit in an airtight container, I like to use a glass Le Parfait or Kilner jar.
• Rehydrate before use or use like currants in your favourite bakes.

Elderberry Recipes

Cooked ripe elderberries are safe to eat. Don’t be tempted to eat raw berries as they are toxic and can cause stomach upsets.

Elderberry Jelly

This fruity seedless elderberry jam is delicious on toast or a scone and is equally good with cooked or cold meats as it pairs perfectly with beef, pork, lamb and poultry. Simply add the jelly to your gravy or jus as you would when using redcurrant jelly.

Elderberry Tart

Tart aux Myrtilles is the inspiration for my Elderberry Tart. I’ve used a rich butter pastry and used a small amount of custard flavoured with Creme de Cassis as a base for the elderberries for my version of this much loved tart. It truly is delicious.

Elderberry Vinegar

Sweet Elderberry Vinegar is a tasty alternative to Balsamic and makes the most delicious salad dressing. Try drizzling your Elderberry Vinegar over ice cream or add it to sparkling water and ice for a refreshing summer drink. The vinegar is so versatile it even doubles up as a cold and flu remedy, simply add hot water to a tablespoon of Elderberry Vinegar and stir.

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