How to Enjoy our Elderberry Products

Let’s talk elderberry! We often have customers ask when or how to take our products for the maximum effect. We hope these tips below help to answer your questions.

How often should I elderberry?

I like to take it every day for immune support and inflammation. Peer-reviewed published research studies show that the anti-inflammatory effect of the phytonutrients in elderberries is significant. I take a teaspoon to a tablespoon of the SIPS daily. 

I use the travel 2-oz bottle of SIPS when I feel ill and I sip on it every hour or two. It’s juice. I drink the 2-oz bottle over a day when I feel ill. 

Why should I take elderberry?

Elderberry’s anthocyanins are a heavy-duty workhorse. They are powerful antioxidants that reduce oxidative stress throughout the body. They even cross the blood-brain barrier to help reduce brain inflammation. I keep an 8-oz bottle in the fridge after I open it and take a teaspoon daily.

Several studies show taking elderberry at the first sign of illness is comparable to Tamiflu and Paxlovid the prescription antivirals for lessening the flu or covid. They help reduce the viral load and lessen the duration of the flu and COVID-19. Elderberry has shikimic acid in it which is the main ingredient in Tamiflu.

That’s why the travel bottle is perfect! It goes with you everywhere. It even gets through TSA and onto the plane so you don’t ruin your vacation. 

How often should I take Lion’s Mane?

Lion’s Mane mushroom is a tincture. You can take half of a dropper daily to help support brain connection, dendrite growth, and fight brain fog.

Do you have any products with both elderberry and Lion’s Mane?

I have a new product LIONBERRY BRAINIAC LEMONAIDE TONIC that is a nice and light refresher. It has Lion’s Mane, elderberry, elderflower, pea flower, a bit of citrus and honey. It’s delicious and great for brain health. It will be out next week. 

What makes your elderberry products different?

The difference between my products and the elderberry syrup you may see from other vendors is that I don’t cook and boil to reduce the elderberry to syrup. This is the traditional method. The big companies sell syrup and gummies but all the anthocyanins are degraded in the heat.

Why should I buy from Lionberry?

Buying local and regional helps us strengthen our food supply chains and avoid shipping disruptions. Invest in the land you live off of.

I’m a farmer. How do I help Lionberry?

We need 22,000 acres of elderberry planted to meet the U.S. needs currently sourced through Europe. If you have 3-9 acres available to plant, a hedge available, or want to learn how easy it is to join the Elderberry Farm Movement! Give Bevin a call at (913) 277-9458.

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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