American elderberry (Sambucus canadensis, syn. Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis) is a remarkable plant that's native to Eastern North America. Growing a native species has a lot of advantages, but they mostly boil down to the fact that a native species is really well adapted to its home range - that means it's easier to grow, so it requires significantly fewer inputs than less well-adapted species would. We don't have to fertilize or water the berries as much as we would if we were growing another fruit, like figs or apples.

Elderberries have a long history of use as a superfood and folk medicine. Modern research is corroborating much of what the folk wisdom already understood about elderberry's properties.

As much as we love our annual veggies like kale, lettuce, tomatoes, and squash, the crops that are planted, grown and harvested in a single season tend to remove more from the soil than they can contribute. However, perennial plants (crops that you plant once then harvest for years to come) build much bigger root systems that help build soil structure over time and foster healthy soil microbes. Although we still grow annual vegetables, the focus of our farming efforts goes towards elderberries and the benefits they offer to the ecosystem year after year.