# Picking Elderberries the EASIEST way



## Cracked Cork (Jul 26, 2010)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2r-0WMWaJ4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2r-0WMWaJ4[/ame]

We picked some elders this weekend and used Richs Knock the berries in the bucket and Lucs washing the picked berries with cold water to float out the junk and got 10 pounds of very nice berries in about 30 minutes, including trying to film the knocking in the bucket which you will see I still havent gotten it right yet. Washing the berries also cooled them down fast and after draining them they filled 2 gallon freezer bags. We have picked so many different ways, this just couldnt be any easier and give great berries in the end.

Crackedcork


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## Brewgrrrl (Jul 26, 2010)

Sweet! Thanks for the tip (and video).


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## Wade E (Jul 26, 2010)

Ive used the cold water trick and that works great to separate the ripe and unripe. Ill have t try the whack



-a-mole method!


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## Scott (Jul 27, 2010)

That does look easy, off to find some elderberries! Thanks Cracked Cork for the info. 








What is the best way to tell if they are ripe enough to start with? When the birds start eating them???


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## Wade E (Jul 27, 2010)

Bring a jug of water with you and throw a few in there.


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## Cracked Cork (Jul 27, 2010)

Check out on my webpage under the harvesting section, I put up some pics of unripe vs ripe berries, they got to be a little soft and full of red juice, also they should come of rather easily compared to the green ones and the ones that are red but not ripe.

Crackedcork


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## Waldo (Jul 28, 2010)

I made my first harvest this year of my Elderberries yesterday evening and used the knock the berries in the bucket and it worked great. Bounced a few outa the bucket but it was still quick and easy. Just drained them off and I got 1-3/4 gallon freezer bags full.


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## Scott (Jul 28, 2010)

Nice website there Cracked Cork, thanks will help alot.


Waldo is that enoughto make1 gallon, or do you mix with something else?


Wade, bucket of water test sounds like a plan to check them. Have some bush's spotted in the ditch by our house, on the prowl for more!


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## ffemt128 (Jul 28, 2010)

I started harvesting elderberries on Sunday then hit another bush yesterday. I managed to get just under 16 lbs of berries so far. I'm anticipating probably that amount again this weekend. I dipped the berries in water then rolled on my fingers to get them off. The smacking a bucket method didn't work to well for me. I was probably doing something wrong. I'll have to check the video from home.


Great site you have there.


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## Waldo (Jul 28, 2010)

Scott said:


> Nice website there Cracked Cork, thanks will help alot.
> 
> 
> Waldo is that enoughto make1 gallon, or do you mix with something else?
> ...


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## Wade E (Jul 28, 2010)

The elderberries arent ready here yet but I will have the mother load this year. Ive driven around for week and wrote down everywhere they were and they are a plentiful!!!!!!!!!!


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## ffemt128 (Jul 29, 2010)

wade said:


> The elderberries arent ready here yet but I will have the mother load this year. Ive driven around for week and wrote down everywhere they were and they are a plentiful!!!!!!!!!!




That's what I have to do next year, write everything down. Found alot out on the bike but couldn't locate some after the flowers were off.


I did watch the video from home. I wasn't shaking the berries hard enough. 


Looking forward to the weekend.


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## Scott (Jul 29, 2010)

Thanks Waldo for the info.


Went to check on the plant last night and the berries are only slightly larger than a BB, must be a young'un?


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## Cracked Cork (Jul 31, 2010)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEfxhnDqGsQ[/ame]

For those elderberry pickers who havent used the washing method to sort out the unripe berries and bugs, we added a new video on washing the berries, we do about a gallon at a time in a 5 gallon bucket so there is plenty of room, we wash them under one of our apple trees so they can have the water.

Crackedcork


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## Wade E (Jul 31, 2010)

Cool video.


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## Runningwolf (Aug 1, 2010)

WOW, you always make it look so easy!


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## Cracked Cork (Aug 1, 2010)

Wolf, that wasnt the first take, you can hear my producer in the background giving encoragement to wrap it up as she had a lot more to pick. Crackedcork


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## ffemt128 (Aug 2, 2010)

I picked another 35 lbs of berries on Saturday. I use the floating method described to pick out the unripe one. I had about 3 lbs total of floaters on Saturday. My harvest so far is 51 lbs....
Can't wait to start making elderberry wine.


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## OGrav (Aug 13, 2010)

There are a lot of bushes around here with what I "think" are elderberries, but do they make a decorative version of them? I've never tasted a ripe elderberry; so I'm a little ignorant. Any good ways to identify them? Red/green/ gooseberry and currants I've got down. I hear they can leave a mess in your fermenter.


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## Brewgrrrl (Aug 13, 2010)

I thought I knew what they looked like until I realized the ones I was eyeing were actually wild cherries. :-/ I do know that there is at least one decorative hybrid elderberry around though - someone tried to sell me one at a landscaping place last year. They told me the berries on that weren't edible. The leaves looked just like regular ones but they're grayish.


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## Wade E (Aug 13, 2010)

The elderberries here are finally ready for picking and I really just havent had the time now. Tomorrow morn I will be giving blood and hopefully after that Im not shot for the day as Im sometimes and Sunday Im working because Im not working tomorrow and they need this job done but I had already had plans to do the blood give and I dont like to break plans. Also tomorrow I have another 100 or so bottles to pick up from a friends house who has struck a gold mine with a restaurant that does a lot of weddings. Im getting really backed up here!


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## Cracked Cork (Aug 14, 2010)

http://www.oatmealjack.com/Elderberries/ElderberriesFlowers.html

THe link above might help you out some. Make your identification from the leaves first, not based on it had dark purple berries because a lot of things have small purple berries.

Crackedcork


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## OGrav (Aug 14, 2010)

Thanks, I'll check that link out. You're right, there are about three or four different red/purple berry bushes around here, in Germany. I think the one's by the house might be the decorative type.


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## Cracked Cork (Aug 14, 2010)

OGrav, our pics are of American elders, while yours is almost exactly the same maybe you could ask some locals to help you get a good id. Crackedcork


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## Waldo (Aug 15, 2010)

Wade said:


> The elderberries here are finally ready for picking and I really just havent had the time now. Tomorrow morn I will be giving blood and hopefully after that Im not shot for the day as Im sometimes and Sunday Im working because Im not working tomorrow and they need this job done but I had already had plans to do the blood give and I dont like to break plans. Also tomorrow I have another 100 or so bottles to pick up from a friends house who has struck a gold mine with a restaurant that does a lot of weddings. Im getting really backed up here!



wade..did you get to pick any of the elderbrries? If they are ripe the birds and critters will get empretty quick


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## Wade E (Aug 15, 2010)

I still have not had a chance but they are still hanging well and low. I gave blood yesterday which always leaves me with little or no energy after-wards and then had to work a full day today and then I cleaned &amp; delabeled 123 bottles. So far the birds have been leaving them alone over here and I yanked a few off on the way home the other day and threw them in some water and they sank fast and tasted good so they are ready. I will try hard to get some this week but so far its not looking good with a few doctor appnts and work. I need a vacation!


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## Cracked Cork (Aug 15, 2010)

We found some that wouldnt be knocked off even though they were ripe and ready. We put a wire cooling rack the with wifes kitchen over the bucket and rubbed the berry heads back and forth across the metal wires mesh and off popped the berries by the hundreds, plus a few stems. So if they berries are not coming off easily, you might want to get one of the wifes wire mesh cooling racks and give them berries a rub up and down it. The water sorting them works just as good as with the knocking on the side of the bucket too. Crackedcork


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## Wade E (Aug 16, 2010)

Thats how a few are around me while others fall right off when just looking at them!


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## Waldo (Aug 16, 2010)

Got the last of mine picked, washed and frozen yesterday. My final yield from my two bushes was3 gallon size zip loc bags and 3 quart size zip loc bags full. Will be steam juicing them in a couple of weeks and thinking I may try an Elderberry/Plum blend with part of them.....


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## gaudet (Aug 16, 2010)

Sounds nice Waldo..... After watching the video, I might give it a shot again this year. Last year I got discouraged by the amount of time it was going to take to pick those berries off the stems. Cracked's methods seem like it will work wonderfully.


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## Cracked Cork (Aug 16, 2010)

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcDFTtmK7nU"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcDFTtmK7nU[/ame]

Yikes, not another elderberry youtube feature. This time harvesting elderberries using
a wire cooling rack. I did not come up with ANY of these tips, I just
have a camera and a webpage, and I can not find who originally shared
this idea with us to give credit. 



Crackedcork


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## Wade E (Aug 16, 2010)

Thanks again for sharing this ingenious idea whomever and crackedcork for showing it to us!



Anyway to make the task at hand with these little monsters is a big help!


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## Runningwolf (Aug 16, 2010)

That was way cool!


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## Scott (Aug 17, 2010)

Wonder how long it takes to get his hands not purple any more?


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## boozinsusan (Aug 30, 2010)

Of COURSE I see this AFTER spending 6 hours yesterday picking, plucking, and cleaning........


Now Maybe I will go back out and pick some more, now that I know I can do it more quickly.....this morning (before seeing these videos) I was NEVER making elderberry wine again!


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## Wade E (Aug 30, 2010)

Thats what I said until I tried the wine I made after struggling last year. Definitely worth the work!


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## Cracked Cork (Aug 30, 2010)

My hands are always purple


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## Wade E (Aug 30, 2010)

I have a 3 day weekend coming up so finally I can get out there. Ive been working 6 days a week for about 2 months now and on that one day off Ive been just running around doing all the house work as my wife had neck surgery awhile ago and still aint good for most work yet and know that school has started today I had a ton of clothes and supplies hopping also for the 2 kids.


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## Waldo (Aug 31, 2010)

I've got that routine coming up wade. Kat has to have surgery on Sept 14 for a torn rotor cuff she got in her wreck a couple of months ago now and just recently found out why her shoulder washurting all the time...shejust never complained to anyone about it until she got to where she could not raise her arm above her head.


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## boozinsusan (Aug 31, 2010)

Sounds like a glass of wine will be good forall of you! 



Nice that you guys take care of things.


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