Elder

Sambucus nigra

• A small scrubby tree, it often looks like its fallen over and regrown a few times, which sometimes it has.
• Elder trees are so called, from the Saxon term for fire, Aeld. Their hollow stems were good for use as tubes for bellows.
• It has a large pithy core, which is easily scraped out and means the wood can be utilised for a range of purposes including a pea shooter, whistles, or a necklace with beads. It is also useful for the hand drill.
• The bark on a younger tree often has a cracked appearance and small dots on, on an older tree it can appear quite cork like.
• The wood when green contains a level of cyanide. So if you are making a pea shooter or whistle I wouldn’t recommend using it too often until it’s had a chance to dry out.
• Creates large umbrals of white flowers that can be collected in large quantities, and turned into a range of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks, recipe links at the bottom of the page.
• Whenever you’re gathering make sure to leave more than you take, to allow others both human and non human to enjoy gathering too.
• If you don’t collect the flowers or have another tree to go to, the berries can also be gathered, these again make a delicious range of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks and also can be turned into jellies or jams as well as fruit leathers and an array of other preserves.
• Folklore states that elderberries help fight off the flu, and there’s a few recent studies done that appear to support the fact that elder does contain a flu fighting ingredient sambucol.
• Personally I’ve found I’ve succumbed to less colds when I’ve still been drinking my supplies of elderberry syrup than when it’s runout. Though whether this is my energy reserves matching the elderberry syrup reserves I don’t know! Recipe links are at the bottom of the page.

Elderflower Recipes

Elderflower Cordial:

This lovely sweet cordial is a great way to bottle that rich summer essence of the elderflower.

Elderflower Bubbles:

This lovely sweet gentling sparking wine, is quick and easy to make, tastes divine and doesn’t have any of the fabled risks of explosions that the stronger champagne can do.

Elderflower Fizz:

Another sweet fizzing wine, this wine packs much more fizz, and also a much higher alcohol content. It takes a little longer to prepare but it is time very well spent.

Elderberry Syrup:

This delightful syrup is great as a cordial, drizzled over elderflower ice cream if you have any left that long, or in a hot cup held close sat around a fire under a warm blanket.