Destemming American Elderberries

So, you've harvested a bunch of ripe, American elderberries. Now what? Today, we are going to get those berries destemmed efficiently and ready to be washed and frozen.

We are going to go through the most up to date methods of destemming your elderberries. In regard to destemming, you'll notice we talk about our TED Destemmer and hand-destemming tray. We have designed these ourselves! And we aren't cutting any corners when it comes to quality and function! While there are many knockoffs available throughout the country, we offer the nation's highest grade, stainless-steel commercial and hand destemming equipment.

Before You Get Started Destemming

Before destemming your freshly harvested elderberries, you can store them in a cooler until you can get to them. We recommend not storing them for longer than a few hours. We also do not recommend freezing them with the stems on. Why? When you thaw them, you break the cell wall of the berry and will lose a lot more juice. Second, you'll find more tiny stem pieces break off and end up in your final mix. This leads to bad taste and appearance.

Let's talk about the dreaded green goo... This is what's left from over-pressing your berries when juicing or when you have too many stems and unripe berries in your mix. While the green goo is unavoidable on your equipment, getting a clean mix of ripe berries will ensure it doesn't affect your final juiced product.

Method of Destemming

Whether you have electric or manual destemming equipment, the process is generally the same: gently shake and move the berries until they fall off the stem into a reservoir below. Quality equipment keeps the berries whole without breaking open, and lessens the stem amount you get in your final mix, all while destemming the berries at an efficient speed.

Picking Equipment

Commercial/electric destemming equipment: The nation's best elderberry destemmer is of course, our TED (Terry's Elderberry Destemmer)! 😍 The berries are gently destemmed and cleaned. It is capable of several hundred pounds per hour and reduces your post-harvest labor.  It is constructed of food-grade stainless steel which makes cleanup and maintenance a breeze. It allows the farmer to double the value of his crop and puts you in control. It is the first step in having a stable elderberry commodity.

Everyone that is in the elderberry farming community should have one.

There are many farms that have adapted other destemmers, mostly grape to accommodate elderberry. We prefer the TED because of its speed and how gentle it is on the berries. It can be operated with a single person, however 2-4 is preferred for maximum production. We have many farms who have gone in together on a TED and share it throughout the harvest season.

To operate the TED, preferably you are located in a covered area with shade. You'll get your buckets of freshly harvested berry heads out of the cooler and drop one (whole bucket, not a single berry head) at a time onto the top of the TED. While it's on, the TED will shake as you use your hands to gently move the berry heads back and forth over the grate.

The berries will fall through the grate and directly into your berry washing baskets. We use our stainless-steel washing baskets, we've designed! Once the baskets reach a certain level, they are replaced and the full basket goes to the sanitizing wash. We use a big barrel to discard the stems into that's located beside the TED.

Manual Equipment for Destemming: For destemming manually, we recommend our Stainless-Steel Destemming Tray & Washing Basket Combo. This simple design lets you destem up to 100lbs of elderberries an hour, if you've got the gumption! The destemming tray fits right on top of the basket, and similar to the TED, you'll use your hands to gently work the berry heads back and forth until the berries fall through the tray into the basket.

You could make your own destemming tray with hardware cloth too. The benefit of our tray and basket combo, is the basket is designed to easily wash and drain produce. Once full, you'll go straight to your 3-sink wash station, and the basket allows you to easily sift out debris and then drains the berries as you lift it out of each sink. Click below to learn more about the destemming equipment we offer.

Bonus: The TED and our manual destemming tray both work for elderflowers too!

LEARN

Have a small amount of berries? Let's talk about historically, what folks have found around their homestead to destem elderberries. These may not be the most efficient methods, but they do work!

1. Use your hands. You can gently work the berry heads with your fingers and get most of the berries to fall off into a bowl.

2. Use a fork or comb. This is probably the most efficient method for a small number of berries. Brush the fork or comb through the berry heads and the berries will fall off.

3. Shake. Just shake until they fall off.

   
   

Finishing Up

Now that you've destemmed your elderberries, you are going to want to clean your equipment and discard your stems. We talked about the dreaded green goo earlier, and it WILL get all over your equipment. Simply clean up with a mineral oil followed by a dish soap scrub and your equipment will be good as new.

We don't have any advice of what to do about your purple hands. Just own them, you earned it! 😂

Washing Your Berries

Depending on how you are utilizing your elderberries, your washing method may differ from your neighbor's. At River Hills Harvest, our berries need to be food-grade clean when frozen, so our washing/sanitizing process is quite in-depth. If you are using the berries for home-use, choose your favorite method before washing and freezing (or using immediately). Stay tuned because we will put out another blog post going in-depth about our washing/sanitizing methods.

Learn More

In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about growing your own elderberries, spend some time on our website taking in all the information we offer. We have lots of resources here in our blog or visit our Resources page. You can take our FREE History of Elderberries Class that will get you set up to take our growing and marketing courses.

At River Hills Harvest, we are farmers, makers and suppliers. We offer American elderberry plants throughout the year. Give our blog post American Elderberries How to Buy a read to see when plants are available and what works best for you to start with. Be sure to subscribe to our emails to get notified when plants are available and when future blog posts are published.

Until next time friends, cheers to your health!

Heather

I am Heather Wilson, of the River Hills Harvest crew. By being part of the company, I am blessed to have access to American elderberries in all forms. I enjoy experimenting with new ways to incorporate them into my diet, as well as other natural plants, berries and more. I have a background in greenhouse management as well as floral design and am involved in the art community as an artist, when time allows. I enjoy playing guitar and writing songs. I also enjoy wandering in nature with no real purpose, because a purpose always presents itself. It’s a busy life, but one that I love and feel lucky to be a part of.