#elder flower

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Elder

My Whit Monday was spent harvesting elder. The first flowers I saw, I had to cross over watermoccasin infested waters on this semi-rotted tree—of course, after that we found it in about five easily accessible places. 🙄

[goldenbrowndragon]

Following up on the elder flower syrup!

I made elder flower ice cream yesterday. It is a time consuming process, but not a difficult one.

I made yoghurt-based ice cream because I love yogurt ice cream. Using regular heavy cream works as well!

First I mixed my elder flower syrup with the yoghurt

Then I put the whole thing in my freezer. If you leave it as is, you will get a brick that's super hard to eat. Not impossible but you will have to fight for your treat. The trick is to mix it vigorously every 40 min for 6h. It will incorporate air in the mix and break any big ice crystal that forms. Your yoghurt-ice-cream will increase volume due to the air (what a shame, I had to have a taste so it would still fit in the jar!)

There you go! I am mastering the ice-cream-making process, it is the fluffiest ice cream I've made so far

[goldenbrowndragon]

I spent last sunday in a forest, and I found elder flowers, my beloved <3

Which means it was syrup time! I also found honeysuckle flowers, so I added them as well.

First step is to remove as much stem as possible. Leaving them makes for a bitter syrup, or so I've heard. I've never tried leaving the stems. I removed the honeysuckle's stem as well. For consistency.

I washed the flowers to remove as many bugs as I could, and added water and sugar in equal amounts. I let that simmer on and off for three days (cooking requires energy), until it was as thick as honey.

Here it is :D

I've made a lot of syrup. Might make elder ice cream at some point!

[bolaneno]

😁my elderflower cordial 🌼💛.

I sterilized an old spaghetti sauce jar to store the cordial. I'm going to use lemon yogurt as the base to make my elderflower popsicles 😍.

[bolaneno]

Elderflower Jelly | The Greedy Vegan

Easy, fast elderflower jelly recipe.

recipe for (easy) elderflower jelly 🌼🌼🌼

[pehheach]

[agapeima]

Feal well with herbs

[carryforthtradition]

Elderberries on Elder Road.

I grew up in a beautiful old house on a road named Elder Road in Bramley, Leeds. It was one of the oldest houses in the area, going back nearly 300 years, originally a farm, then a rope factory, and for us, a family home. At the time when my parents bought it no one wanted old, they wanted new, so it was within my parent’s financial reach and they spent years lovingly restoring it, and kept as many of it’s original features as they could.

We had a huge garden, and the bottom third of it was dad’s allotment where I spent a lot of my childhood ‘helping’. Here you can see me next to the chicken coop at feeding time.

I never found out how the road got its’ name, but there were many Elder Trees around us. (The photos were actually taken in the last year my parents lived there so the allotment was a bit disorderly, they were truly days filled with love and really happy memories.)

There were loads of Elder Trees along the railway line at the bottom of our garden probably due to all the wildlife living along there, happily munching on the berries and then spreading the seeds... need I say more. Elder Trees grow fast and can often be found growing in hedgerows, on farmland, in areas where you find old historic buildings, in suburbia, on wasteland, they are very resilient!

"Feared by the devil. Favoured by foragers. Elder is the very essence of summer with its fragrant flowers and soot-dark fruits. It was said that an elder planted by your house would keep the devil away."  -- https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/elder/

There are conflicting thoughts about the Elder Tree ‘Sambucus nigra’ which has been used for thousands of years and considered sacred. Christians believe Judas Iscariot hung himself from an Elder Tree, Irish Folklore associates it with Witchcraft which I’m not going in to here. I like the brighter Folklore where it’s said the Elder tree is said to protect people and keep evil spirits away, so you are said to be very lucky if one self seeds near your house! In Celtic Folklore the tree is sacred and forbidden to be cut down, which could explain why so many have survived as they can live for 60 years. Elder is said to be one of the oldest ‘plant allies’ found in Stone Age sites and written about in the time of Hippocrates, and in ancient Greek times the hard wood used to make a musical instrument shaped like a harp called the Sambucca, it’s music said to heal the soul.

" Not only did the plant heal the body, it also made music to heal the soul!"  -- https://www.herballegacy.com/Bond_History.html

So the flowers and the berries have been used the world over for mystical, magical and - more useful to me - culinary purposes for centuries - like cordials, juices, syrups, wine and even jam to name a few. I remember the summer sun on the light, white clusters of scented flowers magically transforming in to heavy laden clusters or very dark, almost black, berries that stained our little fingers when we squashed them as Autumn began to arrive. Like all good parents and neighbours, we grew up being told we mustn’t eat the berries, as they are poisonous unless they have been cooked/heated/boiled.

This week I decided to pick some locally and make some syrup to support my parents immune system over the next few months, which is what elderberry syrup is traditionally used for. It’s loaded with good vitamins and minerals said to keep flu and colds at bay, or get rid of them faster! I’m no doctor, the syrup is not a medicine, it is a nutritious berry fruit that can be enjoyed. Obviously I’d recommend you do your own research before you attempt this.

So off I went for a walk yesterday with my lovely aunt, and on a footbridge across a railway track we found lots of old Elder Trees, some looked like they’d been around for centuries. I’m used to finding smaller trees, and the young ones are even in a cluster, almost like a bush, but these were huge and had at some time blown down in the wind but were still growing, lying up the bank leading down to the track side. So my aunt rummaged around and found a little plastic bag she had recycled in her handbag and I snipped a few sprigs of berries off, dropped them in the bag and off we tootled.

When I got home I rinsed them and lay them on a tray to dry. Today I carefully picked each little juicy berry off the stalks and put them in a pan, to which I added boiling water (I guessed how much to add - I used my instinct -but I know there are specific quantities for the best results which you can find easily online) I boiled them up, then simmered them for 30 or 40 minutes. I can’t remember exactly how long because I was multi tasking. They don’t need much attention at that stage.

The next job was to strain and bottle (I used an old pickled onion jar), and then after the liquid had cooled down, I added honey. It’s recommended to add as much honey as half the amount of strained liquid. This is now in my parents fridge, labelled ‘Elder Berry Syrup - 1 teaspoon a day - whenever.’ It can also be added to hot water to make a cup of tea. It smells lovely when it’s boiling, very comforting. It drifted through the whole house and once I’d finished I made myself a cup - It tastes like berry tea hee hee!

I will stress, you need to be careful because the unripe berries can be poisonous, and can really make your stomach bad but once the berries have been boiled, simmered for at least 30 mins to give enough time for all the goodness and oils to seep out of the berries and into the water, they’re no longer poisonous.

Thanks to -

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/trees-woods-and-wildlife/british-trees/a-z-of-british-trees/elder/

https://www.herballegacy.com/Bond_History.html