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Vol
1, No 6
Page 2A |
Common
elderberry: Sambucus canadensis |
October
2003
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Page
2A (this page) of this issue features a captioned slide show on how to
harvest and prepare Elder Flowers, and further information on how to identify
the plant. Page 2B (next page) is a slide show of how to harvest and prepare
Elder Berries. Botanical, historical, and medicinal information, recipes,
and links can be found on Page
3.
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Tools
Required: A bowl, bag or other wide-mouth container.
Total field harvesting time: about 5 minutes will
net you about 2 cups of flowers.
Total
home preparation time: 5 minutes (depending on the number of cups)
Yield:
flowers.
Flavor:
Delicately sweet, aromatic.
Harvesting
Tips: You can ruffle off the flowers as shown above so the berries
will come later. Not
all the flowers on the same umbrell mature at the same time. You can go
back week after week and harvest some more.
Or it's just as popular, if more wasteful, to harvest the whole unbrell
at once, take it home and snip off the flowers, leaving the small stems
on. These 1' to 2" tall flower heads of mature and immature flowers
are dipped in a batter and deep fried as "elder fritters". They
are very yummy, especially when sprinkled with powdered sugar.
Serving Suggestions :
Add to pancakes, fritters, breads, cakes, cookies.
Notes:
Available for a long growing season, and plentiful everywhere.
Nutritional properties: Elder flowers, especially if the whole
flower is taken including the hips, are as high in vitamin C as rose hips.
Medicinal properties: . Elder is another potent and popular medicinal
weeds. Go to Page 3 to learn
more.
Elder Flowers
Notice
how the flowers on the same umbrell, open at different times.
Note that the below buds are not berries, which come later, but the
buds can be harvested to make capers just as described herein for berries.
This makes it possible to come back several times to harvest the flowers,
if you don't harvest the whole umbrell.
To make the fritters, you take scissors and clip off the flowers about
a inch behind the flowers. The upper stems are
edible
but it's not advisable to eat the larger stems due to the risk, so they
say, of cyanide poisoning.
As
the umbrells get heavier and heavier, they begin to weigh down the canes
and droop over where you can reach them better.
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