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American Elderberry Recipes
Welcome to our Recipes page, where we know you care about your health, and we want to be there for the journey! Hippocrates deemed elderberry as 'Nature's Medicine Chest'. You can find recipes on this page made from many of our products and your own freshly grown elderberries.
To learn how elderberries work with our bodies, hop over to our Health page by clicking HERE.
The American Elderberry Difference
The most important thing to understand about the following recipes and documents is that they represent American black elderberries, or Sambucus canadensis. If you wanted to get super technical, it's Sambucus nigra spp. canadensis. These elderberries are native to North America and are vastly different than the Sambucus nigra elderberry that is imported into the USA from Europe, Ukraine and other places across the globe.
How are they different? For starters, we have only been farming our American elderberries here in the USA for about 20 years, they are relatively new. Where we have been importing Sambucus nigra for many, many years. We are JUST NOW in recent years beginning to see studies done and progress towards establishing our American elderberries. So, you may find much more information readily available about Sambucus nigra elderberries than you do American.
But they are SO different!
American Elderberries Do Not Need To Be Boiled To Consume
American Elderberries Contain More Antioxidants
American Elderberry Products Support American Farms
American Elderberries Can Be Made Into A Nutrient Dense Pure Juice
1. American elderberries do not contain the number of precursors of cyanide in them that others do, therefor they are the only ones that can be eaten raw or made into a product using a low heat process. Imagine all the nutrients we are saving by not having to boil them all out???
2. Sambucus nigra (imported) elderberries require boiling to consume and cannot be eaten raw.
3. It should be noted the boiling is a BIG difference. If you are working with Sambucus nigra elderberries, many of these recipes will not work for you because we do not boil the berries in any of them.
4. American elderberries contain at least 2 known extra antioxidants in them. Why does that matter? First, we can make a shelf stable elderberry juice that maintains its color and flavor. An American elderberry juice is the most nutrient dense way to consume elderberry. Sambucus nigra elderberries turn brown once juiced and concentrates available are only palatable mixed with lots of water or with lots of sugar or sweetener added. American elderberry juice tastes fresh and looks beautiful!
American Elderberry Recipes
Each recipe is designed for use with fresh American elderberries or one of our River Hills Harvest American elderberry products.
