Native Elderberry from Renova Sustainable Agriculture, LLC

The American Elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, offers urban regenerative Micro-Farmers a spectacular opportunity to heal their land while enjoying considerable customer demand for their products, year-round. Growing Elderberry as part of a dual-level crop fulfills six of the seven tenets of regenerative agriculture, as it offers urban regenerative Micro-Farmers an opportunity to pair their shrubs with a leguminous cover crop, offer biodiversity to pollinators, low/no-till soil development, groundwater management, and carbon sequestration/dispersal through marketing the cuttings annually. The pairing of American Elderberry with white dutch clover allows for no-mow pasture management while providing green nitrogen and biomass additions, and retaining soil moisture by providing a dual-canopy cover.

The American Elderberry is a prime forage for endangered native North American pollinators as well as the honeybee. Urban regenerative Micro-Farmers can utilize a sub 1-acre lot to provide elderberries for sale as fresh, as a syrup, dried, freeze-dried, or pick-your-own. With qualities such as cold hardiness throughout the entire county as well as 8 months annually with low/no maintenance, AND only 5% of USA consumption being grown in the USA, it is no wonder why the American Elderberry offers one of the most profound opportunities available to urban regenerative Micro-Farmers of today.

Renova Sustainable Agriculture, LLC offers the strain of Sambucus canadensis that is indigenous to the Piedmont of Virginia. We originally sourced and wild-foraged 100% of our rootstock over a period of three years in an effort to provide truly non-GMO stock, with strains locally adapted to the area. Just as local honey carries the pollen grains that are found in a particular regional area, we assert that native elderberry strains are best suited to thrive in a defined local area, and to offer medicinal compounds targeted for local consuption.