Meet Your Makers

 We are Lori and Karla, co-owners of Northern Elderberry. We are a mother and daughter team of elderberry entrepreneurs, aiming to live a healthy and Godly life. We’re happy to share our generational elderberry elixir with you and your family. 

We’re from Northern Michigan. I’m a registered nurse that worked in ICU. Karla works for Community Mental Health and is a Recovery Specialist. Our interests has always been natural, healthy living and sharing wellness with others.  

There’s a rich history of our ancestors foraging the forests and meadows for herbs to make medicines for our family. When Karla was a toddler she would accompany me on hikes and learned about medicinal plants and mushrooms. It's heartwarming to watch Karla carry on the family tradition by teaching her 3 children about our culture and how to forage our lands. 

One of the fruits Karla and I harvest is elderberries to make a winter elderberry elixir.  Friends found out about our syrup and wanted to buy some. Soon, my career path took a turn and I blending a nursing career with the love of herbs and their medicinal properties. In 2016 Northern Elderberry was born.

Our family comes from a long line of health conscious people. My great-grandma taught me how to use herbs to heal our bodies. She also made wine with her brothers. We thought about calling our company the Tipsy Gypsy :D.  My grandpa (Karla’s great grandpa) was a beekeeper near Detroit, Michigan. He kept care of the hives and grandma would help him in the honey house. I never saw them extract the sweet gooey honey from the frames and honeycombs. However, I do remember my grandma washing, filling and labeling the jars. There were times I’d sit with them at farmers markets and fairs while they sold honey. They would occasionally bring me with them to different health food stores to replenish stock. This was before health food stores were popular. 

The first time Karla and I set up a table at the farmers market, I remembered my grandparents and their honey. I got emotional thinking about how bringing holistic, healthy foods and herbs to the community was a generational tradition. They had thick, golden, nectar from the beehives. We have rich dark juice of the elderberry turned into a scrumptious syrup. 

It’s an honor to bring you quality natural foods from the earth while supporting you to lead a healthy lifestyle. 

To Your Good Health,

Lori & Karla

(owners)

Sambucus Nigra, The black elderberry bush is common in Europe and North America. Small white flowers bloom in a cluster in spring and have a sweet floral aroma. The flowers can be eaten raw or cooked. 

The berries are teeny-tiny, 3 mm in diameter. The bush bears a flat bundle of dark purple or blue-black berries called umbels. When ready to pick they have a whitish "dusting" on the surface. The riper the berries the more frosted they become. These wild delights look as though Mother Nature dipped them in powdered sugar. 

The berries are very tart and needs to be cooked to be eaten. The berries are sweeter if dried, rather than fresh. The dark purple berry is packed full of nutrient-dense goodness.  Raw, red elderberry fruit may be poisonous without proper preparation. We use black elderberries.

Sambucus is derived from the Latin word sambuca, the name of a musical instrument.  Throughout North America, the plant was highly prized by native tribes who used the twigs and fruit in basketry and the branches to make arrows and musical instruments. 

Native Americans carved musical flutes and hunting whistles from the elder branches. They also carved whistles for ceremonial uses to sound like the shrill of the elk or the call of a soaring eagle. The stems, with the pith removed, were good substitutes for straws, and were used to blow on the fire to encourage it to burn. 

Elderberry has been used in folk medicine for centuries to treat colds, flu, sinusitis and more. (9)*

Various parts of the elderberry tree have been used throughout history for medicinal and culinary purposes (2).

Historically, the flowers and leaves have been used for pain relief, swelling, inflammation, to stimulate the production of urine and to induce sweating. The bark was used as a diuretic, laxative and to induce vomiting (1).

In folk medicine, the dried berries or juice are used to treat influenza, infections, sciatica, headaches, dental pain, heart pain and nerve pain, as well as a laxative and diuretic (2).

Additionally, the berries can be cooked and used to make juice, jams, chutneys, pies and elderberry wine. The flowers are often boiled with sugar to make a sweet syrup or infused into tea. They can also be eaten fresh in salads (1).


HIgh in Nutrients:
Elderberries are a low-calorie food packed with antioxidants.

100 grams of fresh berries contain 73 calories, 18.4 grams of carbs and less than 1 gram each of fat and protein (3).

Plus, elderberry benefits include rich nutritional value:

High in vitamin C: There are 6–35 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams of fruit, which accounts for up to 60% of the recommended daily intake* (3, 4).

High in dietary fiber: Elderberries contain 7 grams of fiber per 100 grams of fresh berries, which is over one-quarter of the recommended daily intake* (4).

A good source of phenolic acids: These compounds are powerful antioxidants that can help reduce damage from oxidative stress in the body* (4, 5).

A good source of flavonols: Elderberry contains the antioxidant flavonols quercetin, kaempferol and isorhamnetin. The flowers contain up to 10 times more flavonols than the berries *(4).

Rich in anthocyanins: These compounds give the fruit its characteristic dark black-purple color and are a strong antioxidant with anti-inflammatory effects* (4, 6).

The exact nutritional composition of elderberries depends on the variety of plant, ripeness of the berries and environmental and climatic conditions. Therefore, servings can vary in their nutrition (4, 7).  

Northern Elderberry s licensed by Michigan Department of Agriculture. Health-conscious people know that elderberries are packed with powerful nutrients and their benefits. We offer suggestions on how to incorporate elderberry in daily meal planning. 

Side Effects and Safety:
Elderberry fruit extract is possibly safe when taken by mouth for up to 12 weeks. It's not known if taking elderberry fruit extract is safe when used for longer periods of time.

Elderberry is possibly unsafe when the leaves, stems, unripe fruit, or uncooked fruit is eaten. The cooked elderberry fruit seems to be safe, but raw and unripe fruit might cause nausea, vomiting, or severe diarrhea.

Special Precautions & Warnings:
Pregnancy and breast-feeding: Not enough is known about the safety of using elderberry during pregnancy and breast-feeding. Stay on the safe side and avoid use (8).

"Autoimmune diseases" such as multiple sclerosis (MS), lupus (systemic lupus erythematosus, SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), or other conditions: Elderberry might cause the immune system to become more active, and this could increase the symptoms of autoimmune diseases. If you have one of these conditions, it's best to avoid using elderberry. 


Moderate Interaction
Be cautious with this combination! Medications that decrease the immune system (Immunosuppressants) interacts with ELDERBERRY.

Elderberry can increase the immune system. Taking elderberry along with some medications that decrease the immune system might decrease the effectiveness of medications that decrease the immune system. Some medications that decrease the immune system include azathioprine (Imuran), basiliximab (Simulect), cyclosporine (Neoral, Sandimmune), daclizumab (Zenapax), muromonab-CD3 (OKT3, Orthoclone OKT3), mycophenolate (CellCept), tacrolimus (FK506, Prograf), sirolimus (Rapamune), prednisone (Deltasone, Orasone), corticosteroids (glucocorticoids), and others (11).

*This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.