Mobirise
Elderberry

(Sambucus nigra) Elderberry is all over your local Walgreens, as a purported symptom reliever for the flu. Older folks will tell you it makes great wine. We just like that it grows in wet soil. We have a  lot of that. 

  • Health Benefits
    Elderberry has tons of antioxidants; second only to Aronia.     
  • Best eaten as                       
    Elderberry Jam. You are not supposed to eat the berries raw because they might make you sick if consumed uncooked. We learned this just after we ate a handful. We survived with no ill effects. 
  • Pests
    Birds decimate elderberries. It's ridiculous. As soon as the berries ripen, the bird eat them all. We net the berries, but we've had even better luck with a swooping predator bird-kite we got from the U.K. It's so lifelike it stops traffic.
  • Year planted / Source
    48 in 2016 (Hartmann and Evergreen); 18 in 2016 (Ozaukee County).
  • Cultivars
    The non-cultivar are thriving, partly because by the time we got them we'd put up our deer fence. "Wildwood" and "Bob Gordon" were destroyed by deer. 'Black Lace' was chewed by deer but transplanted to the fenced area in 2018. 5 survive.