Hartsburg, Mo., is the home of the largest elderberry farm in North America. Farmer Terry Durham is in charge of roughly 50 acres of elderberries. The farm started in 2004 with research on small clips from the wild elderberries you can find on the side of the road. It took two years and in 2006 the first batch was planted on five acres. Throughout the course of another two years those first plants grew and so did the other acres. The first harvest yielded 250 bottles of elderberry juice. These elderberries were planted on the 21st of June, 2011.
The process of planting involves tiling the rows with a tractor. Next, plastic has to be layed over the rows and dirt is then placed over the edges of the plastic. Another machine that has two seats at the very back for two of the farmers to sit in will move up and down each row. The machine has a wheel that has two spikes. The wheel rotates and every four feet a whole is created. The farmers will then grab a bush and place it in the hole that has been created and watered by the spike. The two farmers alternate each whole. The entire time the machine moves at an idle speed of one mile per hour and the farmer running the tractor never pushes the gas. (1 minute 15 seconds)
