Today we’d like to introduce you to Chase.
Hi chase, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
our story begins in 2017 when our kids were in elementary school, They would always have a cold or runny nose and all the neighborhood kids they played with always seemed sick. so my wife and i went to the local health food store and talked to the lady there about boosting our kids immune system and she recommended elderberry syrup. We had never heard of elderberry syrup before this, we gave it to them as directed and within a couple weeks we had healthy kids. no sickness or runny noses. the other kids in the neighborhood were still sick but our kids were healthy. really impressed with what we had witnessed we started doing more research into elderberry, where in the world was it grown? did it grow in north america? was it a shrub or a tree? what type of climate and soils does it prefer? and with all this research we came across scientific studies of elderberry that confirmed what we had witnessed with our own children. fast forward to summer of 2018 we meet a elderberry grower in the midwest and hes been growing elderberry there since the 1990’s and has really good cultivars of American elderberry. Elderberry can be grown from cuttings, its the preferred method because with cuttings you will always have a clone of the mother plant. so we ordered 2000 cuttings and had them shipped to our Florida farm in february of 2019. We had to see if we could get them to grow this far south and would they produce a yield making it worthwhile. after a couple years, once we started harvesting the american elderberry we starting making products and findings and creating a market to sell our premium elderberry products such as a premium 100% american elderberry juice, elderberry immune syrup, elderberry balsamic vinegar, elderberry jelly, elderberry elixir with honey. fast forward to 2026 and we have grown to 16,000 elderberry plants on our farm. 95% of elderberry products in america are made with imported berries, we are part of the 5% of products made with american elderberries, fresh pressed american elderberries have much better taste and color and health benefits than the products made with dehydrated imported berries.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
the biggest struggles for us was learning how to grow elderberry as a commercial crop and also developing a market for american elderberry products.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
North Florida Elderberry is a family farm specializing in American elderberry, we produce cuttings for other growers to get established or backyard gardeners wanting to grow elderberry, and we have a value added product line of premium minimally processed elderberry products using all natural ingredients. what sets us apart is that 95% of elderberry products on the market are made with a dehydrated imported berry usually from thousands of miles away and we are part of the 5% of products made with juice of fresh pressed american elderberry. the taste, color and health benefits of our products is far superior to those made with imported berries. they can find our products at https://www.northfloridaelderberry.com/
What was your favorite childhood memory?
farming as a young child with my parents and grandparents. the work, family bond we all had together.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.northfloridaelderberry.com/
- Instagram: @north_florida_elderberry_farms
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/northfloridaelderberry
