#elderflower

[49wasagreatyear]

Landscaping?

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[crudlynaturephotos]

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Kosmatice

Sweet Elderflower Fritters

1759 recipe from Culinary Heritage Cookbook (a joint Czech/Austrian project collecting old recipes that were crossing the border between Austria and Southern Bohemia and Znojmo, where my great-grandparent’s village is located).

We are still in between living quarters and staying in a motel, so I cheated and used pancake mix since I don’t currently have my usual pantry.

They reminded me of a slightly floral funnel cake. I didn’t have powdered sugar, or my spice grinder to make some, so I drizzled them with honey. I only made a small batch since I didn’t want to waste the elderflowers if I didn’t like them, but I could definitely see myself making them again, hopefully from scratch.

A modern recipe:

Recipe: fried elderberry blossoms are a rare Czech summer treat

Have you tried this outdoorsy Czech delicacy served sweet with powdered sugar or savory with dip?

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Elderflower Fizz, Wines and Cordial

The elderflowers are blooming along the edge of my garden. It is time to celebrate the coming summer with Elderflower Fizz, Wine and Cordial

Hmmmmmmm . . .

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Color in Czech and Wider Slavic Embroidery

I am on Day 3 of working on the embroidery for my Letnice elderflower amulet bag. Today I’m going to talk about my color choices.

Although the elder tree has clear or milky sap, in many of the folktales it is said that the wood will bleed red if you cut it. This is probably due to the various myths about the elder mother living in the tree or a witch (did she transform from a positive spirit to a witch with Christianity?). Since I work primarily with the grandmothers and mothers in my ancestral line, I really click with the idea of the elder mother, so I decided to use red for the skeleton of the umbel rather than a more realistic green (in my last post I wrote about the lack of realism in Slavic folk motifs). This outline is not just the scaffolding of the umbel, but the outline of the eight-pointed or Mother star found in the structure of the original Moravian pattern (which is probably not an elderflower at all, but worked for what I wanted to evoke 🤪).

According to Patterns of Czech Folklore (bachelor’s thesis, 2023) by Vendula Kubickova, “red is the most popular color [in kroj embroidery] associated with love, blood, fire, the life force.” This very much aligns with my knowledge of the color in wider Slavic folk art.

For the square at the center I chose black. In general Slavic embroidery a square often represents the earth. In much of the Czech folklore of the elder, she is associated with chthonic elements. In Kubickova’s thesis she states that black often appeared in the clothing of older women, where it symbolized dignity, seriousness, or sadness. Again this brings us the idea of the elder mother, an older woman who in many European communities would have worn black. But also it is associated with death and mourning. In some Czech communities the elder was associated with the ancestors and death. In some areas a cross made of elder was placed on the coffin or on the grave.

In the rest of the embroidery I am using more realistic colors to represent the flower as we physically see it.

White is for the flowers. In Kubickova’s thesis she states “white is the most common color, [it] symbolized purity, light, innocence. Until the 20th century it was considered a mourning color because people were buried in white clothes and shrouds.” As the elder is a plant with a lot of dichotomy in the folklore, I like the idea of both youth and purity being contrasted with death and the grave. Also white is associated with Smrtka, the personification of death, a white presence at either the foot or the head of the bed when death is near. Sometimes she is seen as the face of the older Morana—in my great-grandparent’s village it is Smrtka that they drown in the early spring. Though I can find nothing linking Morana to the elder, in my UPG I see her there.

I am using green to represent the leaves and the pale green stems on the underside of the umbel. In Kubickova’s thesis she states that green symbolizes nature. But, of course it does! Nothing could make more sense. Also, the dried elderflowers that will be housed by the bag were foraged during the Pentecostal/Green Holidays. But here I mean for green to represent more than just nature—but healing nature. Elder is one of the most powerful plants in the kořenářka or herbalist’s apothecary for the health of the immune system.

The yellow of course is realistically the color of the stamens, but also, sometimes the ivory of the flowers in certain soils appears almost yellow. In Kubickova’s thesis she states that yellow is associated with gold, a festive color. And I would say a wealthy color, a color of health and abundance.

Next time I will discuss the eight-pointed or mother star motif.

[fliessbandunikat]

Now that elderflowers are in full bloom, I'm reposting this old linocut of mine. Elderflowers (elders?) are one of my favourite plants, I absolutely love their smell. It always brings me back to my childhood when we would help collect the flowers so my mum could make syrup. Not to mention the elderberries!

I think this was my first two-colour linocut. Was harder than expected, as it always seems to be with that medium 😅

[bolaneno]

I gathered more elderflowers today💮💮💮. I'll make syrup with them (to make elderflower lemonade, popsicles etc.)

[dvoeverie-stitches]

Elderflower Amulet Bag

My newest stitching is a love letter and devotion to the elderflower. I haven’t finished anything in awhile (which is not abnormal for me as I stitch my pieces around my devotional calendar during the time the spirit is most seasonally active, sometimes setting it down as the season ends and finishing the following year during the same season), but I really want to feel the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing something. So I’m taking time from my roosters to stitch a quick amulet bag to contain my letniční (zelené svátky)květy bezu/Pentecostal (green holidays) elderflowers.

I am using a Moravian embroidery pattern that made me think both of the umbels of an elderflower and the eight-pointed star (mother’s star) in slavic folk embroidery as a nod to the “elder mother” who resides in the tree in some traditions (though in others it is the devil!). These intricate versions of the eight pointed star are also a common motif in my devotional embroidery as a symbol of the wheel of the year.

In Slavic folk embroidery flower patterns are not meant to be realistic. I will go more into my color choices and thoughts about this pattern as I stitch over the next few days. Everything has meaning. Some of it may not be what was intended by the person who did the original design, but as usual I start with something concrete from the culture of my ancestors and as a reconstructionist daughter of diaspora rely on my allies and upg to make something personal.