MonaVie® The Elderberry

 

The elderberry is a member of the honeysuckle family is a shrub that grows up to thirteen feet high, with smooth, gray bark. Corky bumps cover the slender branches, and there’s a spongy, white pith inside the twigs and branches.

 

In late spring or early summer, the elder bears tiny, branched, white, lacy flowers in flat-topped to slightly rounded clusters (panicles) that spread over 6" across. The tiny, spherical, juicy, purple-black to black, seedy berries are hardly more than 1/8" across. They grow in branched clusters, like the flowers, ripening from mid-summer to early fall, in quantities that weigh down the branches.

 

Gather the berries like the flowers. This is quick. The real work occurs at home: Pulling small bunches of berries from their stems, and sorting the fruit from the debris on a tray, takes time.

 

Avoid unripe, green berries. Cooking or drying greatly improves the flavor. Baking this fruit in muffins, cakes and breads imbues them with a piquant crunchiness. They become the central ingredient whenever you use them in baked goods. Elderberries aren’t sweet and contain no thickeners. Rely on other ingredients for these elements, especially if you’re making the European favorite, elderberry jam.