Another lookalike that you should know about is Devil’s Walking Stick (Aralia spinosa), which looks WAY closer to elderberry than Pokeberry (Phytolacca americana) to me. DWS usually fruits later in the season and has spikes on the bark, which elderberry lacks. Don’t forget, if you want to find elderberry, the BEST time is NOT now when they are fruiting, but when they are flowering. All of those timing windows are on my Interactive Forager’s Calendar. 📅 (link in bio) Let’s talk about the controversy surrounding elderberry edibility. People say you can’t eat raw elderberry due to the content of cyanogenic glycosides (CNG). They also say that these are concentrated in the seeds, but that isn’t true. They are found throughout the fruit (Appenteng 2021). Concentrations of CNGs are highly variable between species and individual populations. They are also, generally speaking, FAR lower than people would lead you to believe. Some people eat lots of raw elderberry without issue, while others eat small amounts and experience nausea. That doesn’t sound like CNGs are the source of the issue at all to me! Either way, like I mentioned, I don’t recommend eating them raw. They don’t taste good that way anyway! Have you eaten elderberry before?
The greatest sambucus is the Negris, Black Elderberry, first known to native americans, is the flu killer. Japan certified its action as a pre cursor cell envelope that halts reproduction of invaders in the lungs. Giving your immune system plenty of time to defeat it and build immunity naturally. It halted 19 in two days of usage.
I would like to make a minor argument toward the nauseous reaction some people have ... If you look at nightshades you have a similar issue caused by toxins BUT there are many edible nightshades such as tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants ... Many people have nightshade sensitivities which cause them to have bigger reactions to the toxins at a lower dose making even those edible nightshades almost inedible... I wonder if people have a similar issue with elderberry or even the opposite if more people get this reaction than not
A bunch of my friends made raw elderberry juice and drank it. They all ended up in emergency room. But they were okay afterwards. We all laughed about it. But what I do, every autumn, is go harvest a ton of elderberries and freeze them. When they are frozen, you can remove the berries from the stems easily. Put in water. Berries sink but debris floats. Strain out debris. Boil. Then take off heat, strain out pulp, add sugar or honey. Use for elderberry and vodka cocktails for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Use elderberries instead of cranberries for Thanksgiving. Never get sick all winter.
I've eaten elder berry for years, and by the thousands of them at 1 sitting, and it settles my stomach releaves heartburn , and never had a adverse affect. Early August is the best time
Picked a bunch of it 2 days ago and threw it in the fridge to work on further inspecting and cleaning them. Plan on making elderberry juice for the first time!
Love elderberry. Used to harvest tones of this on my parents property and use a steamer to extract and can all the juice. Elderberry jelly is my favorite.
Take dried rosehips, elderberries, manzanita berries, hawthorn berries, for winter tea. Keep in a pot on wood stove. One batch of berries can be reused to make more batches of tea all day. And it makes your cabin smell like winter berries.
Phytolacca americana, also called pokeweed is my favorite plant :) The largest ones I've seen were in my yard and I let them get to about 6 feet before they ended up dying because of weather; they were GORGEOUS! While the berries share similar color to elderberry it should be easy to identify them like said in the video. Pokeweed is not a tree and it is typically the size of a small bush or shrub. It's stems are green and purple or dark reddish and are fiberous stalks instead of woody. With that being said, if for some reason you have ANY doubt that something might be a pokeweed berry DO NOT eat it. They are highly poisonous and every part of the plant can he lethal if eaten. They can be especially dangerous for children who don't know not to eat these tasty looking berries and eating any amount of berries can be toxic to a child. If you have children and they frequent any area with berries please take the time to identify the berries and educate them on why they are dangerous, you could save their life. Admire them with your eyes not your mouth and happy foraging😊
I'm so glad he stressed the importance of cooking them! That's one of the biggest things when it comes to elderberries as they can be toxic if eaten raw
As jelly, I give it 11 out of 10! (And any way you might be able to tolerate it, it's very medicinal as well! It's one of the things I used to strengthen my immune system during the COVID debacle.)
In Germany we take the fresh flowers as whole bunch, dip them in pancake batter and fry them in butter. The fruits are used to make jam and dried flowers are used to make tea.
West coast wild elderberries are powder blue when ripe, never dark. And while they grow in places they can get a little more water, we don't have much of that around here, so not usually IN water.
I moved from the West where there was largely blue elder, to Texas with the American elder. I just recently had a chance to sample the berries in my area, and was surprised how vastly different the berries actually taste.
Why does this man give life changing advice? Like if im lost out in the woods now, at least I know what wild lettuce is good and which one is bad haha.
As jelly, I give it 11 out of 10! (And any way you might be able to tolerate it, it's very medicinal as well! It's one of the things I used to strengthen my immune system during the COVID debaucl
So, you know that liquor "st Germain" that's made with "Elderflower"? Are these of the same plant?🤔 that stuff js SOOO DELICIOUS... wonder if the berrys are incredible too...😮
Yes, it's the same tree! In Scandinavia we also make various drinks from the flowers but if you leave the flowers be they will turn to these berries. Personally I have never had the berries but have heard lots about them.
In Europe we have elderberry literally everywhere and it fruits in abundance. That elderberry is called sambucus nigra tho. I wonder if they taste identical to sambucus candiensis
I ate about a tablespoon of raw elderberries and got very nauseous. I feel fine when I eat them cooked but my brain has associated the taste with sickness, so I feel icky eating them cooked :/
Another lookalike that you should know about is Devil’s Walking Stick (Aralia spinosa), which looks WAY closer to elderberry than Pokeberry (Phytolacca americana) to me. DWS usually fruits later in the season and has spikes on the bark, which elderberry lacks.
Don’t forget, if you want to find elderberry, the BEST time is NOT now when they are fruiting, but when they are flowering. All of those timing windows are on my Interactive Forager’s Calendar. 📅 (link in bio)
Let’s talk about the controversy surrounding elderberry edibility. People say you can’t eat raw elderberry due to the content of cyanogenic glycosides (CNG). They also say that these are concentrated in the seeds, but that isn’t true. They are found throughout the fruit (Appenteng 2021). Concentrations of CNGs are highly variable between species and individual populations. They are also, generally speaking, FAR lower than people would lead you to believe.
Some people eat lots of raw elderberry without issue, while others eat small amounts and experience nausea. That doesn’t sound like CNGs are the source of the issue at all to me!
Either way, like I mentioned, I don’t recommend eating them raw. They don’t taste good that way anyway!
Have you eaten elderberry before?
The greatest sambucus is the Negris, Black Elderberry, first known to native americans, is the flu killer. Japan certified its action as a pre cursor cell envelope that halts reproduction of invaders in the lungs. Giving your immune system plenty of time to defeat it and build immunity naturally. It halted 19 in two days of usage.
I've eaten them raw for many years and actually love the taste, the problem here in Nova Scotia is getting them before the birds do!
I would like to make a minor argument toward the nauseous reaction some people have ... If you look at nightshades you have a similar issue caused by toxins BUT there are many edible nightshades such as tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants ... Many people have nightshade sensitivities which cause them to have bigger reactions to the toxins at a lower dose making even those edible nightshades almost inedible... I wonder if people have a similar issue with elderberry or even the opposite if more people get this reaction than not
@@mekkellowder35 huh, I was unaware of potato & eggplant being in the nightshade family, I did however, know that tomato is.
A bunch of my friends made raw elderberry juice and drank it. They all ended up in emergency room. But they were okay afterwards. We all laughed about it.
But what I do, every autumn, is go harvest a ton of elderberries and freeze them. When they are frozen, you can remove the berries from the stems easily. Put in water. Berries sink but debris floats. Strain out debris. Boil. Then take off heat, strain out pulp, add sugar or honey. Use for elderberry and vodka cocktails for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Use elderberries instead of cranberries for Thanksgiving. Never get sick all winter.
"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries." 🤣🤣🤣
.....NEE....PANG....AND NEEEEEWONG
Lmao
I fart in your general direction
Seriously, he should just have explained that you can identify elderberries because they smell like your hamster f---king father.
I ate elderberries raw as a child. They grew near our home by the lake. I did not get nauseous. I loved it. That's just me. Thank you for sharing
I did too. I don't think it ever bothered me. Guess, I was lucky.
You are that exception
I spent all day yesterday picking cleaning and making jam out of elderberry.
I've eaten elder berry for years, and by the thousands of them at 1 sitting, and it settles my stomach releaves heartburn , and never had a adverse affect. Early August is the best time
My grandmother used to make elderberry pies, soooo good 😁
Picked a bunch of it 2 days ago and threw it in the fridge to work on further inspecting and cleaning them. Plan on making elderberry juice for the first time!
Love elderberry. Used to harvest tones of this on my parents property and use a steamer to extract and can all the juice. Elderberry jelly is my favorite.
elderflower cordial is nice, not tried wine, but my parents made it a couple times so it must be worth it
Elderflowers taste very different to the elderberries
@@beththegreen you make wine from the berries
I've made elderberry wine. It's better than muscadine wine IMO
Take dried rosehips, elderberries, manzanita berries, hawthorn berries, for winter tea. Keep in a pot on wood stove. One batch of berries can be reused to make more batches of tea all day. And it makes your cabin smell like winter berries.
I love your videos. I am from India and always wonder why there are more berries vs fruits in western countries as compared to India
And i wonder why theres a lot of spices in india.
@@Hsssssssssssssssssss Maybe bc it is a hot country so hot plants would succeed?
Phytolacca americana, also called pokeweed is my favorite plant :) The largest ones I've seen were in my yard and I let them get to about 6 feet before they ended up dying because of weather; they were GORGEOUS! While the berries share similar color to elderberry it should be easy to identify them like said in the video. Pokeweed is not a tree and it is typically the size of a small bush or shrub. It's stems are green and purple or dark reddish and are fiberous stalks instead of woody.
With that being said, if for some reason you have ANY doubt that something might be a pokeweed berry DO NOT eat it. They are highly poisonous and every part of the plant can he lethal if eaten. They can be especially dangerous for children who don't know not to eat these tasty looking berries and eating any amount of berries can be toxic to a child. If you have children and they frequent any area with berries please take the time to identify the berries and educate them on why they are dangerous, you could save their life.
Admire them with your eyes not your mouth and happy foraging😊
Chokecherries are one of my favorites. I hated the dry sour taste, but quickly grew to love them.
I've had elderberry jam that was 🔥
The water looks so enticing and inviting.
I'm so glad he stressed the importance of cooking them! That's one of the biggest things when it comes to elderberries as they can be toxic if eaten raw
Drying them is good too, we're about to make a batch of elderberry mead from the dried berries soon.
As jelly, I give it 11 out of 10! (And any way you might be able to tolerate it, it's very medicinal as well! It's one of the things I used to strengthen my immune system during the COVID debacle.)
They documented to help immune response or is it an old wisdom science hasn't verified yet sort of thing?
Years ago I tried making elderberry jam. It never set, was still really runny. But, it was the Best syrup ever! 10/10 😋
I once knew a girl named Velod who would make mead with Elderberrys... I wonder if she still does.
I looooooove elderberry wine
Elderberry wine is amazing
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 😊
Gotta post an elderberry wine recipe
So good
In Germany we take the fresh flowers as whole bunch, dip them in pancake batter and fry them in butter. The fruits are used to make jam and dried flowers are used to make tea.
West coast wild elderberries are powder blue when ripe, never dark. And while they grow in places they can get a little more water, we don't have much of that around here, so not usually IN water.
That would be Sambucus cerulea, or blue elder
@@clvrcookie the local botanists always call it Sambucus canadensis, sometimes var. mexicana, but never caerulea.
@@christajennings3828 not unusual. Taxonomic standards differ from botanist to botanist
@@clvrcookieIf the berries have bloom on them, chances are they're blue elderberry.
I moved from the West where there was largely blue elder, to Texas with the American elder. I just recently had a chance to sample the berries in my area, and was surprised how vastly different the berries actually taste.
We make syrup of elderberry flowers or even fry the flower clusters in dough ❤ sooo good
That's a great video 👍
I made the most delicious syrup out of it. It looked and tasted amazing drizzled over vanilla ice cream.
Appreciate all you do to educate us all,
Why does this man give life changing advice? Like if im lost out in the woods now, at least I know what wild lettuce is good and which one is bad haha.
It makes good wine!
As jelly, I give it 11 out of 10! (And any way you might be able to tolerate it, it's very medicinal as well! It's one of the things I used to strengthen my immune system during the COVID debaucl
I used to chew them and spiy them out when i was younger.
I used to take elderberry gummy vitamins, they were so good I wanted to keep eating them so I went back to the boring pill vitamins 😅
Just harvested some this morning. 🤗
Thanks 👍👍
So, you know that liquor "st Germain" that's made with "Elderflower"? Are these of the same plant?🤔 that stuff js SOOO DELICIOUS... wonder if the berrys are incredible too...😮
Yes, it's the same tree! In Scandinavia we also make various drinks from the flowers but if you leave the flowers be they will turn to these berries. Personally I have never had the berries but have heard lots about them.
Love sirup or schnitzel from eldeberry flower
I like to dry them. I find the flavor is better and put them in muffins or something
Elderberry jelly is very tasty 👅
I’ve never found elderberry where I live. It’s always pokeweed.
In Europe we have elderberry literally everywhere and it fruits in abundance. That elderberry is called sambucus nigra tho. I wonder if they taste identical to sambucus candiensis
I saw this in Florida that almost everywhere
You can make lemonade with its flowers when its in bloom. But you cannot drink too much at once because it has laxative properties. 🙂
We have tons of ground water in Mississippi so our elderberries are sweet and delicious, they take like huckleberry no need to prepare it.
I’ve always heard, and correct me if this is wrong, that you shouldn’t eat elderberry until after the first frost
"American Elderberry"
"Sambucus Canad-ensis"
What you didn't mention is it's ability to help boost your immune system.
Watch out for Bigfoot. They live berries. Hee hee.
👌
It needs to be cooked and strain out the seeds...the seeds are what makes u get queezy
dude i found a pawpaw that dropped fruit really early in the year today and i tried it for the first time ever and it was SO GOOD
"Elderberry Wine" by Elton John🎶🎶
The amount of pants I thrown away because of elderberry
Can you do highbush cranberry? Plsss
Elder Berry jam, syrup and wine are delicious. Many people have issues with raw so why bother
tamsty
The only elderberry species found in maratime south east asia is Bornean Elderberry
Every berry is edible. Some you can only eat once.
Grows in my back yard
Those things are everywhere in Britain
Young natives would eat them to acclimate the body to the irritants as the berries were staple food and you wouldn’t survive
add ginger, ceylon(!!) cinnamon (the other one is not healthy where ceylon is )and clove and cane sugar at the marmalade
...thank me later.✨
Yes, they are edible but also toxic. You should cook them and remove the stems, wood, before you cook them.
How to remove that funky taste from them?
Only an 8 outta 10 ? I had sambucca & it was delicious
Sambucus 'CANADENSIS'..???
so that would be Canadian Elder..?
;9)
I ate about a tablespoon of raw elderberries and got very nauseous. I feel fine when I eat them cooked but my brain has associated the taste with sickness, so I feel icky eating them cooked :/
What on earth is your 10/10?
"American" elderberry yet it's "Canadensis" 😂
Yeah, you can eat it...once in a lifetime
You can eat raw, just dont eat the stems, leaves, or seeds. They do taste better cooked with sugar.
"Canadensis" proceeds to call it American💀
100
Raw elderberry will give you the scoots
Elderberries you can eat but beware of their poisonous look alike pokeweed
Raw it tastes bitter and a bit like bile/vomit ngl
You mean Canadian elderberry... It's literally in the name **Canadensis**
Canadensis, virginiana, americana all usually refer to "Of North America"
Was your mother a hamster?
"Can I eat this?" With a shirt!? 0 out of 10
It is fedrally protected! Be very careful!
Only the blue elder, only in commirfornia, and nobody will stop you from harvesting anyway.
You'd think people would confuse sumac for it more than pokeweed