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Elderberry industry expanding in the Midwest

Elderberry production is expanding throughout the Midwest.

“The elderberry is a new crop to grow in the Midwest. Now, we have several hundred people that are growing elderberries throughout the region and even on both coasts all over the country. We have been training growers for the last ten years and building it into an American industry.”

Terry Durham, owner of River Hills Harvest in Hartsburg, Missouri, says there are benefits to domestically grown elderberries.

“In the past we have always had to worry about the precursor of cyanide that was found, they thought, in all parts of the elderberry. That is true of the European elderberry, but we had a paper presented after five years of research to show that there are insignificant amounts of that precursor of cyanide in the American elderberry.”

Brownfield interviewed Durham at the Comprehensive Elderberry Workshop in Jefferson City, Missouri last week. More than 100 growers from across the U.S. and Canada attended the three-day workshop which focused on beginning growers and scientific literature presentations.

Elderberries are used for food as well as medicinal purposes and are high in nutritional value as they work as both an anti-inflammatory and immune system booster.

With 95 percent of the crop currently being imported from Europe, Durham encourages consumers to purchase domestic elderberries to support their efforts.

Anyone interested in growing elderberries can contact their local extension or NRCS agent, or River Hills Harvest who sponsored the Comprehensive Elderberry Workshop.