Elderberry Syrup Making at Blue Elderberry Farm

By Rose High Bear (Deg Hit’an Dine, Inupiaq)

Founding Director

Image of Blue Elderberry Farm logo

Elderberry Wisdom Farm has been perfecting our Wisdom of the Elderberry Syrup recipe this fall. Many of you know that we have been growing the Sambucus nigra ssp Cerulea species of elderberry, also called Blue Elderberry, since before my move to rural Marion County in 2017. We formed Blue Elderberry Farm as a model business in 2021 and completed our business, marketing and financial plan with technical assistance from consultant, Rich Schwartz at Alder Street Consulting. We are sharing this social and economic development project and encouraging our Native community to develop locally sourced organic health products as a microenterprise business. 

Because of our love of this plant, we have been invited to attend International Elderberry Research Symposiums. We also track peer-reviewed research with published findings on the impact of elderberry on human health for the past several years. The public is growing increasingly aware that high levels of polyphenols and other powerful plant compounds in blue elderberry support our immune systems and reduce the severity and duration of colds and flu. Early research on the properties in Sambucus may eventually document its capacity to combat cancer, support cardiovascular and digestive health, alleviate diabetes symptoms and even reduce cognitive decline. In the meantime, we primarily highlight its capacity to boost the immune system. 

While our little patch of blue elderberries continues to blossom and grow, we are adding our neighbor’s European black elderberries to our recipe and selling our healthy immune-boosting syrup to the public for the first time. The team at the OSU Extension’s Food Safety Lab have provided tremendous support. Our Oregon Department of Agriculture Food Safety Inspector has also provided essential technical assistance, plus we have technical assistance on label development from the OSU Food Innovation Center.

We are making Wisdom of the Elderberry Syrup for local farmers market for the first time this fall, including Salem’s Holiday Market in December 12-14 and the Winter Market in Corvallis in January. We may announce in next month’s newsletter if we offer Wisdom of the Elderberry Syrup at our website in December. This serves as an example of how Native people can develop a business by preparing healthy and delicious foods and herbal products and begin to support themselves with their own micro-enterprise. 

We had a lot of questions and concerns about making herbal products for the public because of our long-standing tradition of giving and sharing for our family. In Alaska, we are known for our giveaways where we honor loved ones and their life of service at potlatch ceremonies with days of feasting and giving away cultural gifts including our favorite Native foods. We reflected for over a decade until we finally realized that so many elderberry syrups are being made for commercial sale by others and that our Native people should not be inhibited from also producing and marketing products that are so near and dear to their hearts.  

In today’s world, Native people need to financially support their families and because the spirit of generosity is so closely integrated into our work, we developed our hybrid business plan. We dedicate ourselves to working on the earth producing foods and medicines needed by our community. We sell a portion so we can recoup costs and cover living expenses and then we give some to our family. Our desire is to achieve prosperity for our family members and descendants and someday attain multigenerational prosperity.

This has made our work at Elderberry Wisdom Farm even more exciting and provided opportunities for Interns to learn how they can also produce food and medicinal products as a cottage industry from their own farm or kitchen. Four years of growing is culminating in this year’s harvest that has made the success of our social and economic development initiative more promising. 

We especially honor these TEK Interns and our staff here at the farm for their enthusiasm and support. Successive groups of Interns have continued to tend these plants since they planted the first plants with us in 2021. Their ongoing commitment to our land has helped us strengthen the health of our soil and the vigor of the plants as we continue our transition to certified organic. We watched the deer nibble them down to stubs in prior years and this year, flocks of birds devoured half of the berries as they turned color. So the berries became part of our giveaway and our thanks to Great Spirit for the blessing of the land and its richness. It helped us remember they are part of our ecosystem and also rely on this healthy goodness for survival.