How to deal with fresh elderberries
First - Elderberries grow in large bunches on on 'umbels'
In early spring our elderberry bushes are covered with giant bouquets of white fragrant flowers that keep all the local pollinators busy. After the flowers are pollinated small green berries form, which over the next 2-3 months turn to a light pink, get larger in size, and ultimately turn to deep purple berries that force the umbels to hang upside down like a giant sunflower due to the weight of the berries. These umbels are cut with sharp pruners near the last set of leaves to encourage the plant to grow additional blooms the next year.
Post Harvest
Separate the berries from the stems
There are a lot of ways to get the berries off the stems. The internet recommends freezing the berries on the stems, then rattling the berries off in a large bag. It works. We did this the first year we grew them and it was successful, but we quickly ran out of freezer space.
Another easy way is to just gently pull the berries off the stems with your hands. The berries are extremely ripe when we pick them so they are already basically falling off the stems. Just hold the umbel over a large bowl with one hand and gently pull with the other, and let them fall into the bowl. Put some parchment paper or something on the surface to catch any that don't make in the bowl and to catch any juice in case any berries pop while being picked.
Your hands will turn purple! In my experience the tint is gone with a good washing or two, but if you are concerned consider rubber gloves.
Here we use a piece of half-inch stainless steel hardware cloth and a food grade bucket, and it works great. Once the berries are separated from the stems, fill the bowl with water and gently agitate to wash the berries. Unripe berries, stems, flowers, and other debris floats, so pouring off the top of the water should get any remaining stems or flowers loose. Drain with a colander and you now have fresh, clean, elderberries.
Juicing Fresh Elderberries
How to make Fresh Elderberry Juice
Don't worry - making juice from fresh elderberries is not difficult. In fact I think it is easier than using dehydrated berries. But, it can be messy and will stain things purple, so make sure you have your surfaces covered.
Put your fresh, cleaned, de stemmed elderberries into a medium size pot and add enough water to cover the bottom of the pot by about half an inch to keep the berries on the bottom from scorching.
Turn your stove on to a medium heat and watch as the berries and water come to temperature. As they begin to warm, the berries will split and release their juices.
You can help this along with the back of the spoon or a potato masher. Keep in mind if you're using a wooden spoon or things with wooden handles they could be stained purple from the juice.
Once all the berries have released their juice, pour the juice and berry pulp through a fine mesh strainer and catch the juice in a bowl. Use the back of a spoon to force as much juice out of the fresh elderberry berry pulp as possible. (There will be quite a bit of pulp left because each elderberry has a seed in the center. Add the pulp to your compost.)
Add the juice back to the pot and reduce to your desired consistency. I try to keep the heat as well as I can when I'm reducing because I think it's a little gentler on the juice and will preserve the nutrients. I don't know if that's true or not, and I don't think it'll will cause problems if it does boil.
This juice can be used like you would in any elderberry juice recipe.