There is no known Elderberry picker ever designed in the U.S. as far as I know....?

Question

The engineering school at UMC has spent a great deal of time/money trying to develope this machine, but has still not been completed. My understanding is there are some that have been designed and being utilized in parts of Europe. Does anyone have any information reguarding this? Thank you!

Answer 1

http://www.littauharvester.com/

Try this site from japan.  While no specific elderberry picker is listed, I wonder if one of the other pickers might not be versatile enough to do the job.

Oh, and it has a raspberry picker as well.

Edit:  Oh, and elderberry wine would actually be quite seller in the U.S.

Answer 2

Having picked elderberries by hand, I wonder why anybody would bother.

Black raspberries, on the other hand, have exquisite flavor, and they have really nasty thorns. What's more, if you touch the canes accidently, the raspberries end up falling off, and breaking apart in the dirt, which renders them pretty much useless.

They should have invented a black raspberry picker instead.

Answer 3

Elderberry is not as big a crop here in the US as it is in other parts of the world. These days with product development it is no big deal where a harvester is developed for a market, or where that market is. One would think that the two would be co-located but not necessarily. US food markets are funny and it is a difficult thing to bring a new product or a low use product to a consumer that wants bananas and white bread and nothing new, thank you, good day!

Answer 4

Elderberries are so easy to pick why would you want a machine to do it?  Plus there is no commercial industry for Elderberries.