Elder
Elder – Sambucus Nigra
What a wonderful bush or indeed tree. Elder is a truly fabulous plant with lots of both culinary and medicinal purposes. It is also one of them that are really easy to grow, almost like a weed. The flowers are very pretty and gives off a sweet scent. Later on in the autumn the berries add to the autumn splendour with their dark purple colour and red stems.
Folklore
Elder and its early use
We can trace the use of Elder back to the stone age, seeds from the berries has been found in settlement sites. Elder was most likely used both for its medicinal properties and as a source of food. The bush has also widely been used in witchcraft and other nature based religions.
Nordic and Celtic mythology
In Scandinavia, people planted Elder around their houses as people thought it would attract good hobgoblins and luck. The Elder is also the Goddess Freya’s tree (1). Celtic mythology assigns Elder similar properties, for example keeping the evil from the house and more specifically planted by the back door of the house. Even better of course if it had seeded itself in a good position. It kept the house safe and kept negative and evil influences away from the house. To further manifest these properties it was quite common to hang elder flowers over the entrance door. This is also a good way to dry the elder flowers to use as a tea throughout the winter. The scent of elder also seem to repel flies which is a very desirable byproduct.
Elder and Faeriefolk
The Elder tree is very closely connected with faerie folk, especially around midsummer you should be able to see them. Around that time the Faerie King and Faerie Queen leads their folk in a festive march under the trees. The Faerie folk especially like music made by instruments in turn made out of elder wood. The branches have a quite spongy inner which makes it easy to hollow out to make flutes etc. It is stongly advised not to sleep under an elder tree as this may disturb the faerie folk. Elder gives off a quite strong scent which can have mildly narcotic effects which will add to this story (2).
Elder and the Devil
Old tales suggest that you would see the devil if you burnt Elder wood (3). He is supposed to show himself in the flames. Maybe the fact that elder wood whines and screams when burnt helped fuel this suggestion. Turning this whole theory around; you should not burn Elder, since the tree is so closely connected with female goddesses and the attraction of luck.
Medicinal use
Contents
Elder has been used widely all over Europe and still is. It`s the loved by all cure all plant. It contains flavonoids, essential oils, tannins. The leaves also contain cyanogenetic glycosides which makes it poisonous if consumed in large quantities, this is especially important to think of it you keep livestock. If there is an Elder tree close to the water trough, leaves will fall into the water and thereby making the water poisonous.
Uses
Elder is used as an anti inflammatory, an anti viral, to bring on a sweat with the idea to sweat out a fever. The berries are also used as a laxative and for increasing the metabolism. The main uses are for colds, influenza, throat infections, fevers. Both flowers and berries are used for these purposes. To some extent bark and leaves are also used but i will focus on the Flowers and berries. Interestingly, historically the young twigs were used to aid and lower the effects of epilepsy (5).
Flowers
The flowers are widely used and there are many ways to use them. For medicinal purposes the most common way is to use them as a tea. Dry the flowers by hanging them, separate from stalks and if necessary, let them dry on trays for a little longer. Store dry and dark. To make the tea, steep 1 tablespoon of flowers in a mug of hot water, drink frequently during a cold to speed up recovery. The flowers can also be used as a cold infusion, where you let the flowers steep in cold water, drink before bedtime to reduce night sweats (5). Another common way of using the flowers is to make a cordial. This can be used as above and can be drunk both hot and cold.
Elder flower cordial
Ingredients:
50 clusters of Elder flowers
2-3 preferably organic lemons
2 litres of spring or filtered water
2 kg of sugar
50g citric acid
Method:
Bring the water to boil and dissolve the sugar. Meanwhile rinse the flowers. When all sugar is dissolved bring the water off the heat, push the flowers into the water, you can leave the stalks on. Add the finely chopped lemons and citric acid. Leave for two days. separate the liquid and bottle into sterilised bottles. This cordial keeps for about a month in the fridge, if you want to keep it for longer you will need to freeze it. Remember!!! No glass bottles in the freezer. You can use less sugar but it will not keep as well so freezing is essential. Both sugar and citric acid helps the cordial to last longer.
Elder flower pancakes
Ingredients:
1 egg
1dl milk
1/2 dl flour
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1-2 drops of vanilla essence
Elder flowers
Butter for cooking
Method:
Mix the batter and leave to rest for 30 minutes. Rinse the Elder flower clusters and leave to dry on a clean cloth.
Melt some butter in a pan. Dip the flower end of a cluster into the batter and fry in the butter until all the batter has set. Remember to whisk the batter before you start dipping. Enjoy!!! PS. If you want to make a larger batch you can multiply the batter recipe.
Watch this space! More recipes to come….
Berries
The Elder berries have traditionally and are still used as a classic cold remedy. Use to promote sweating and for its proposed antiviral properties(3). The berries can be used as a cordial, dried as a tea or indeed as a juice. Elderberries also have laxative effects(1).
Elderberry cordial
Ingredients and method
Prick the berries at the peak of ripeness, it does not matter if a few has turned into raisins, but avoid green ones. Rinse and separate from the stems, do this by hand or with a fork. The berries do stain the skin and it can be a good idea to wear an apron. Put the berries in a big pot and add 1-2 dl of water just to cover the bottom ot the pot. Add Cinnamon sticks to taste. Start off on low to medium heat, bring to a boil and simmer until berries pop. Turn off the heart and leave over night.
Next day. Pour the juice through a siv or muslin cloth. Leave to drip for a while. You can give the berries a little squeeze to help the process along. Measure how much juice you have got. If you have 1 litre of juice add 1kg of sugar, if you have 2 litres add 2kg of sugar and so on. Mix in the sugar with the juice and bring to boil. Pour the hot cordial into sterilised bottles. This cordial will keep for about a year in the fridge.
No sugar? No problem! The juice tastes a little bit like wine and you can definitely enjoy it without sugar. It will need freezing for it to keep though.
PS. Do not use a mixer to try and extract more juice, the pips contain a bitter substance and it will ruin the taste.
More recipes to come…..
References
- Örtmedicin och växtmagi, 1982, Det bästa
- “Trees for life” website
- “Woodland trust” website
- Williamson and Evans (1988) Potters New Cyclopaedia of Botanical Drugs and Preparations
- Bartram, 1998, Bartrams Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine.
Why not read on about other herbs and ways to gain a healthier life…
Glorious weeds!!!!
