Elderberry

Source of Recipe

Recipe Introduction

List of Ingredients

Berries may cause nausea if eaten in abundance.
Cooked are fine.
Flower for tea. Also fried in a batter.

Notes from, First ways;

There are three main kinds of elderberry, American (black), Sambucus nigra, which is a shrub up to 4 meters tall; blue, Sambucus cerulea, a tree up to 12 meters tall that grows in dry, open habitats; and red, Sambucus racemosa, which likes stream banks, moist clearings and open forests. I see red elderberry most often in the local parks. The distinction between these kinds matters not at all in terms of harvesting flowers. But when the berries come around for eating, the black and blue are far, far tastier, and good to eat raw, whereas the red must be cooked first because they reportedly contain higher levels of toxins in them. The red elderberries are indeed red, or else yellow-orange. The black and blue berries are good candidates to become jam, syrup, wine, etc.

There are actually even more varieties of elderberry, especially in urban and suburban settings, where people like to plant it as an ornamental. Normally the flowers are a spray of white, but the one I found was pink and growing on a purple tree. I knew it was elderberry because of the leaf pattern and shape of the flowers.

All parts of all elderberry species other than the flowers and berries contain cyanide-producing compounds, so it is a good idea to avoid the leaves, stems and bark when harvesting for food or medicine. (end).


rest of plant, including the green berries toxic.

Red elderberry; (Pending proof)
Berries, cook first. (rest of plant contains a cyanide producing glycoside.
(Alderleaf wilderness college. Chehalis, Green river, Klallum, Makah, Quileute, Quinalt, Skagit, Skokomish, Skykomish, Snohomish, Squaxin, and Swinomish.)
Flowers dipped in batter and fried. Petals can be eaten raw. (Pending proof)

Recipe