The Journey to a Better Elderberry

By Farmer Dan Childs

It is said you can’t eat elderberries raw but for me, I have been eating them my whole life picked fresh off the wild American elderberry bushes along with wild apples said to be planted by Johnny Appleseed, wild blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. It was a summer smorgasbord as we spent whole days out and about in the woods of Western New York at the beginning of the Appalachian Mountains.  European Elderberries, imported and used by 95% of the makers of elderberry products, have less of the beneficial components according to a study by the U. of Missouri and have a lot more bad glycosides than American Elderberries, which is why eating them raw did not bother me.

On weekends, our blueberry picking crew would scour the hills of Appalachia looking for elderberries for my Dad to make wine with. He paid top dollar so this crew would go far and wide to find elderberries on back dirt roads, railroad tracks, pond and river banks, etc. They would visit Chautauqua County, Cattaraugus County and Allegany County, which in total is about 39,000 acres. I asked the crew, “when you find a really good elderberry in the wild, take a cutting and bring it to me”. I got many cuttings, which I cloned and used as starting stock. In exchange, this crew of adventurers heard I was selling my Pontiac Transport van and rather than pay for the cuttings, asked for the van. I was agreeable. We then started a breeding program with one goal---eliminate the green berry that made harvest so slow. If we could eliminate the green berry all the elderberry varieties had, it would revolutionize the elderberry industry! After 28 years, we got the desired result with the Black Diamond Elderberry—99% green berry free. I reached out to Danny Hartmann of Hartmann’s Plant Company to have this variety cloned and he suggested we apply for a patent. Now I had to soul search. I could keep the variety to myself and literally put the other elderberry products to shame. You can’t make a top tier elderberry anything if the green berry is left in as it is taste-tainting and mildly toxic-neutralized by heating to 180 degrees for 5 minutes. ALL the other varieties had this same issue—green berry plus many of them taste like dirt, whereas the Black Diamond has quite a nice flavor. Well, I opted to give the world the Black Diamond Elderberry and Hartmann’s is handling it. Reach out to them to place your order. It is time to retire all the other elderberry varieties.

Visit the Childs Elderberry Elixir link to learn more about what we do with the Black Diamond Elderberry since we are not selling the plants.

Farmer Dan Childs, 2026

PS In 2012, Western New York had 14 days of -20 degrees and 4 of those days were under -26 degrees. Everyone who had Gordon, Johns, etc varieties--they died due to the cold. Only the Black Diamond survived. 

To order, visit this link. Hartmann Plant Company

https://hartmannsplantcompany.com/elderberries/black-diamond-elderberry-retail/