Good-Natured Nutrition
Good-Natured Nutrition
We recently received a question from one of our customers and thought we would share our answer here:
Post Question: Fresh pressed sounds like wasn’t cooked? Am I misunderstanding? Because elderberries must be cooked before being consumed to prevent risk of cyanide poisoning.
Answer: Great question!
The elderberry is fresh-pressed before it is lightly pasteurized to be a shelf-stable juice. You are correct that the EUROPEAN Elderberry (Sambucas Nigra) has cyanide in the seeds which the heat of pasteurization and bottling destroys. LIONBERRY by MAMA PAJAMA only uses The American Elderberry (Sambucas canadensis) which does not have the high cyanide in the seeds like the European. The University of Missouri has some excellent research and articles explaining this.
HOWEVER, we use fresh-pressed fruit (which means it is pressed immediately after picking) then we do a light pasteurization for shelf stability. We avoid cooking it down, reducing it to syrup, boiling the fruit because a high and long heat degrades the delicate antioxidants. We are currently being 3rd party tested for healthy plant properties. Watch for this data on our website www.lionberry.us.
Thank you so much for the question!
People act like small batch is a hobby.
Nope.
Every bottle from a small farmer is a value-added product inside a value food chain.
That chain is made of humans, not container ships.
If global trade gets tariffed to death, or the truckers strike, or a war kicks off, or a fuel shortage hits, or a natural disaster…guess what?
Walmart will not be driving to Thailand for pineapple juice.
Local food is the only thing that can actually disrupt the global supply chain — in a good way.
And here’s the delusion:
Everyone thinks “we’ll connect with the local farmers when we need them.”
Nope.
If the shelves go empty, it’s already too late.
Now is the time to get the relationships built. The value chain in motion.
Now is the time to slot locals in the stores — even if it’s as “novelty items” at first on a local farm shelf.
Because when the global pipeline hiccups?
The people who will actually feed your region
aren’t the ones with the biggest warehouses.
Shop local or… we’ll be learning how to season cardboard and call it rustic.
