University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension outreach is a partnership between state, federal, and county governments to provide scientific knowledge and expertise to the public. The University of Florida (UF), together with Florida A&M University (FAMU), administers the Florida Cooperative Extension Service.

Attach the rod to a drill, fill a bucket with berries on stems, put the board (with drill and fruit basher attached) over the bucket and turn drill on low. This should beat the berries off the stems and leave the stems reasonable in tact. Now get an off-cut of 3/4" chicken mesh and pass the berry/ stem mix through.

River Hills Harvest has not only developed a mechanical harvester, they've also worked out a small commercial mechanical destemmer, to get all those little berries off those big heads. "We can do 1,500 to 2,000 pounds a day very easily," said Durham. "We like to pick half a day, and then pack and process the other half of the day."

Elderberry, a perennial shrub native to North America with a variety of uses and benefits, is neither well known nor widely utilized as a specialty crop in the US. Up-to-date information is lacking with regard to the elderberry market or market potential. This research identifies the market participants along the value chain, the current status of the industry, …

Elderberries can be planted from seed in the fall or spring, and grow best in well-drained soil with a pH between 5.5 and 6.5. You will need to plant at least two plants, as elderberries do not self-fertilize well. Elderberries are perennial and will spread over …

Whole cluster sorting is not so common among small commercial wineries. It is more labor intensive and requires a larger crush pad, particularly if you're also sorting after destemming—that would require two tables, after all. ... They are attractively priced in the $3k-$6k range, but do a poor job of maintaining grape integrity. Likewise ...

Elderberries - Recipes, Nutritional Information, Home Canning and Freezing Instructions! Elderberries and a unique American fruit, familiar to native Americans, but still not commonly known by many others. Ripe elderberries yield an abundance of sweet juice that is used for jelly, jam, juice, elderberry wine and syrups.

Roughly speaking, a winery should expect to pay about $1,000 to $1,250 per ton per hour of destemming capacity. This range tends to drop very slowly as the destemmer capacity increases, up to about 50 tons per hour. For destemmers above 50 tons' capacity, however, the economies of scale become much more favorable.

Our elderberries are the American Black Elderberry (Sambucus nigra L.ssp. canadensis (L.) R.Bolli ), categorized as USDA PLANT SYMBOL: SANIC4. Our Elderberries are the local natural Florida variety of the American Black Elderberry which are vigorous growers, producing the first fruit starting June and giving a second fruit later during the year.

Photo by Holly A. Heyser. Elderberry wine, made correctly, is every bit as good as wine made from its cousin the grape. Aged, oaked and mellowed, wine from elderberries bears a close resemblance to some of the huskier, more …

Elderberries are one of the UK best fruits for making wine. Often referred to as the "Englishman's grape" elderberry wine is a rich, full bodied wine and there is usually a plentiful supply of the fruit throughout much of the UK you can pick for free out of the hedgerows. I know many enjoy making wine from elderflowers and even I have a batch made from this year.

The goal is to develop an efficient fruit handling system for elderberries to allow automatically destem, sanitizing and rinsing berries, and potentially for other small fruits and vegetables. The specific objectives include (1) survey and evaluation of the existing technologies used for handling fruits and vegetables; (2) development of a ...

The University of Missouri's financial pro forma suggested that small to medium sized producers can add modest elderberry plantings (4-10 acres) at an establishment cost of $2500-$4500 per acre. Under market conditions in Missouri, experience-based projections suggested that growers could earn $500-6500/acre net return.

A few attempts have been made to overcome this lack of information. Gonzalez-Gomez and Morini (2006) tried to determine the cost of winemaking through an adapted Activity-Based Costing (ABC ...

The typical workflow for Pinot grapes is to destem them, partially crush them (optional), and allow them to ferment for some time before pressing. After fermentation, any free-run juice is pumped out. This leaves behind just the wet fermented must for pressing. The volume of grapes you're left with is quite a bit less than what you started with.

In the vineyard, this is an excellent opportunity to prepare for the next year, with some growers choosing to clean up any unwanted weeds that have been growing throughout the harvest, wash the hard wood of the vines with a copper-based fungicide and cultivate the soil to allow the winter rains to soak in deeply.

Offered daily, our intimate wine tours, typically with a maximum of 15 participants on-board, provide round-trip service from many Anaheim, San Diego and Temecula lodging establishments for individuals and small groups. Read …

Facts and myths about hand and machine picking Let's start with clearing up one of the basic misconceptions. It is not true that manual harvest is better than mechanical harvest. However, manual harvest can sometimes be better than mechanical harvest. But the opposite is also true: Mechanical harvest can be better than manual harvest. Sometimes. […]

COMMERCIAL PRICES Est. annual yield <500 tons, concentrated in the Midwest Target MEC production cost payment of $.75 lb. for destemmed and sanitized native elderberries packed frozen MEC price target of $2.00 lb. for washed, quality graded, de-stemmed and frozen elderberries sold bulk berries Top MEC wholesale volume price of $3.00 lb. for bulk

Elderberries have many of the qualities that grapes have that make them so well suited to wine making. Grab a pair of scissors, pop to the countryside and pick the elderberries off the trees, then back home to make wine. A glass of elderberry wine. If you don't have wild elderberries nearby, you can buy plants and grow your own.

Home to more than 80 commercial vineyards and 20 bonded wineries, new vineyards and wineries are being developed within the Ramona Valley each year. Malibu No longer just the preferred domain of entertainment stars, over the past twenty years, numerous boutique wineries have taken root in the fertile mountains in Malibu, along the Pacific Coast ...

Now is the time. The Elderberries are starting to ripen and are perfect for making Elderberry wine, Elderberry syrup, Elderberry jam and jelly, or Elderberry pies.The berries must be fully ripe and as dark as they can be, to make the best Elderberry Products. They should leave your hands and mouth stained a dark and intense purple.If you are going to make only one …

There are plenty more herbs that may help support your immune system. Check out this post on immune-boosting herbs for some top picks from …

Aronia Berries for New Fruit Wine Flavors. by Mildred Culp, Ph.D · November 17, 2015. Ripe Aronia berries are midnight blue and about the same size as a medium blueberry. (Photo by Coldbrook Farm, Inc) Aronia berries, a …