Christopher J. Patton

Pomegranates, make room for another superfood: American-grown elderberries. The market is miniscule so far, but the potential is super-colossal.

Meet Christopher Patton, who recently founded a cooperative of commercial elderberry growers in the Midwest. His previous jobs included teaching, advertising, and public relations, plus five years in Israel training as an archeologist that included paleoenvironmental studies in his minor, a path that circuitously led him to the specialty food industry.

“A key component in archeology is tracking societies and food culture over time, a high overview of the rise and fall of civilizations, the ups and downs of trade,” Patton says. He’s applying that knowledge to explore the myriad applications and benefits of the elderberry, a flowering plant extolled in the 4th century BC as a healing remedy by Hippocrates, the Greek father of medicine.

In 2011, Patton began a grower development, marketing, and distribution partnership with Terry Durham, an organic farmer in Missouri and the founder of the River Hills Harvest Marketers brand. Pure Premium ElderBerry Juice is currenlty sold nationally under the brand in about 500 stores.

As ancient as the elderberry is, Patton, 67, sees it as the food of the future.

“In studies with mice, it’s reversed damage from dementia, heart attacks, and strokes,” he says, adding that it has at least twice the ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) value—which measures antioxidants—of other superfoods. Taking a tablespoon of elderberry juice twice a day has eased his arthritis pain, he says, and even minimizes his bouts with the flu.

“First of all, it’s amazing how good this berry is, and there are massive health benefits for everyone,” he says. “It has tremendous potential for the consumer and for small- and medium-size growers as a cash crop. The expansive root system helps control soil erosion, and in the wild, it supports over 60 native pollinators.”

Currently, 95 percent of elderberry products are imported from Europe, which Patton estimates is nearly $1 billion industry there. Patton, a Minneapolis resident, is attempting to change the ratio, and invested $40,000 of his retirement savings to compete with the European market. He recruited 18 farmers in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin, where growing conditions are favorable, to form the Midwest Elderberry Collective.

“We’re running off a shoestring,” Patton says, though he’s confident that will change. “If we can get more commercial ingredients in place and I can guarantee a certain price, then we can expand the co-op.”

The berry’s red-purple juice has traditionally been extracted to mix with brandy or syrup. Pale elderflowers are dried for tea and fragrantly enhance liqueurs, whiskey, wine, and cider. Patton is working to establish relationships with entrepreneurs and craft distillers, whose ideas include developing elderflower gin, soda, lemonade, and ginger ale. The plant’s berries or puree can be added to chocolate, yogurt, gouda, and goat cheese, similar to uses for cranberries, tart cherries, and pomegranate.

“My grandfather was a naturopath back in the 1930s, so I’ve always had this thing of taking care of yourself and the environment,” Patton says. “There’s a lot more that we can do to get these healthy foods into the mainstream of people’s diets to reduce the incidence of high-cost health care problems. I want to leave the world a better place.” 

Highlights

1997: Organic farmer Terry Durham begins participating with Missouri horticultural researchers on the Elderberry Selection Project, later known as the Elderberry Improvement Project, which involves locating wild selections.

2006: Durham harvests enough commercially planted berries for the first pure premium juice production, River Hills Harvest  ElderBerry Juice.

2011: Patton meets Durham at a conference in LaCrosse, Wisc., and writes a one-page market proposal to expand the reach of RHH products, at that time found in about two dozen stores in and around Missouri. Durham accepts.

2012: Patton partners with Paul Otten, a berry grower and nurseryman in Minnesota, to establish an elderberry plantation in Scandia, Minn. Files paperwork for the Minnesota Elderberry Cooperative and holds informational meetings for potential growers, along with Durham’s help.

2014: Converts his elderberry marketing business to River Hills Harvest Marketers, LLC and expands availability to more than 200 stores. 

2015: With help from grants, elderberry processing equipment—mobile, on-farm de-stemming and washing set-up—is born, along with elderflower ingredient development. 

2016: Minnesota Elderberry Cooperative becomes Midwest Elderberry Cooperative with grower members in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota. ElderBerry Juice is sold in 500 stores.