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2026 AMERICAN ELDERERRY CONFERENCE

2026 AMERICAN ELDERERRY CONFERENCE

2026 AMERICAN ELDERERRY CONFERENCE

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June 17-19th in Mt. Vernon, M

The American Elderberry Conference is a yearly event that takes place in the heart of the American elderberry farming world, right here in the Midwest! This conference brings together scientists working on the latest American elderberry research in health and lifestyle. It brings in farmers who travel in from across the globe to learn the latest techniques to increase production and build sustainably.  Included also are makers and innovators, who use American elderberries in various products available on the market.  The American Elderberry Conference provides valuable insight into the elderberry industry and helps connect American farmers with businesses.

June 17-19, 2026

2026 American Elderberry Conference

Building a Sustainable Future in Health, Agroforestry & Industry​​

Schedule:

Schedule:

Wednesday and Thursday we will be at The University of Missouri’s Southwest Research Extension and Education Center. Enjoy two days packed with information, lunch, snacks and vendors at the facility and we will tour their elderberry planting on Thursday. Presentations, presenters and schedule will be shared with ticket holders once finalized. Thursday evening, relax and network at the reception (more information coming soon). Friday, we will have a number of local elderberry farms available for you to tour.

The American Elderberry Conference is a yearly event that takes place in the heart of the American elderberry farming world, right here in the Midwest! This conference brings together scientists working on the latest American elderberry research in health and lifestyle. It brings in farmers who travel in from across the globe to learn the latest techniques to increase production and build sustainably.  Included also are makers and innovators, who use American elderberries in various products available on the market.  The American Elderberry Conference provides valuable insight into the elderberry industry and helps connect American farmers with businesses.

Each year the demand for elderberry products grow here in the USA. Elderberry researchers, farmers and product makers are on the forefront of this industry. Working together to unite and continue to build this marketable crop.  The yearly American Elderberry Conference digs deep into farming techniques and helps guide farmers to get the best yield for their acreage. This conference educates product makers building or using a processing facility, as well as creating value added products. It also brings in the latest research in areas such as American elderberry for brain health, diet and more. The conference focuses on the industry as a whole and how to build that: whether it be through product innovations, commercial farming techniques, community, marketing and more…

https://www.riverhillsharvest.com/2026-elderberry-conference

To register for this event please visit the following URL: https://www.riverhillsharvest.com/2026-elderberry-conference →

 

Date And Time

06-17-2026 to
06-19-2026
 

Location

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Presentation at the Great Plains Growers Conference

Lionberry 's Weekly Delusion and Re-illusion Update.

Heartland Elderberry Collaborative (Heartland ECo)


“Instead of asking each farm to grow bigger, we’re building shared capacity so farms can stay viable at their current scale while accessing value-added markets.”

An AgriCluster Pilot for Shared Infrastructure and Value-Added Market Access
Eastern Kansas / Western Missouri


PROBLEM CONTEXT

Small and mid-sized farms face persistent structural barriers to entering value-added markets, including:

• Limited access to processing infrastructure
• Limited cold storage capacity
• Transportation constraints
• Fragmented, uncoordinated distribution
• High costs from duplicating equipment and logistics across individual farms

These constraints restrict grower profitability, inhibit vertical integration, and reduce the viability of diversified regional food systems.


WHAT HEARTLAND ECo IS

The Heartland Elderberry Collaborative (Heartland ECo) is an active, facilitated, place-based AgriCluster pilot organizing elderberry growers and processors in eastern Kansas and western Missouri.

• Facilitated through ACRE (AgriCluster Resilience and Expansion)
• Emphasizes collective capacity-building and shared infrastructure
• Designed to enable farm-level vertical integration (grow, process, and take products to market)
• Structured to share infrastructure, governance, and market access


WHAT HEARTLAND ECo IS NOT

• Not a single-farm expansion program
• Not a commodity-scale production model
• Not a vertically integrated corporate system


WHY ELDERBERRY

• Performs well on marginal soils
• Integrates with soil-health and regenerative practices
• Supports perennial hedgerows and diversified systems
• Enables multiple value-added pathways (destemming, juicing, beverage and supplement production)
• Aligns with growing consumer demand for regionally produced products

The pilot is explicitly designed to test repeatability across additional non–Big Ag crops, including tomatoes, fruit crops, and legumes.


CURRENT PILOT STATUS

• Core grower group established
• Regular coordination underway
• Shared infrastructure priorities identified
• Grower recruitment initiated
• Early coordination with grocery buyers in progress


SHARED INFRASTRUCTURE HUB CONCEPT

The Heartland ECo model proposes a centralized hub facility located south of Kansas City to support participating farms and processors.

• Aggregation and intake
• Cold storage
• Destemming
• Juicing
• Bottling
• Short-haul regional distribution

The hub is intended to reduce duplicated equipment costs, logistical inefficiencies, and fragmented distribution efforts that commonly limit small-farm participation in value-added markets.


PILOT OBJECTIVES

Establish a functioning elderberry AgriCluster
Create shared access to processing, storage, and distribution infrastructure
Build collective grant-writing and fundraising capacity
Coordinate educational outreach related to elderberry and soil-health practices
Evaluate feasibility of scaling the model across additional crops and regions


FORTHCOMING PILOT STUDY

This poster outlines a proposal for a forthcoming pilot study to formally evaluate the effectiveness of the Heartland ECo model.

• Economic impact
• Grower profitability
• Infrastructure utilization
• Soil-health indicators
• Logistical efficiency
• Replicability across crops and regions

DOWNLOAD POSTER HERE