Part of our annual summer traditions are as follows:
Watch the elder trees for flowering. Everywhere. This is area-wide ~ when we drive, hike, etc.
Agonize over how many flower heads we can pick without hurting the berry production.
Make googly eyes at the elder trees every time we see them.
Impatiently watch the green berries form, and begin to slowly change color.
By slowly, I mean all this happens in about a month's time!
Excitedly make trips to collect elderberries in a race with the birds that live within 10 miles of our little homestead!
I literally just de-stem them and freeze them raw. I prefer to use them like this throughout the year as I need them, rather than processing them. I have used them this way for many years, and they can even keep into the second winter if you are lucky enough to not use them all between the picking seasons.
It is truly a summer love affair with the elder, that lasts all year long.
Now it is winter season and the snot is running for the first time in our house. It's my partner, and he's miserable! He's already been taking the woo-dam but I want to give him something specific for the snot and breathing functions of the body.
I don't think I have told you all about woo-dam yet. Note to self for future post...
So this morning while he made us our normal espresso/breve amazeballs coffee, I made him some elder magic.
The ingredients are super simple, as long as you have a summer love affair...
I definitely don't follow the original recipe exactly, but it might help you a bit until you get your magic touch just right...
...and I keep it as a permanent fixture on my fridge, because it's that important for curing our winter blues!!!
You really are just combining everything except the honey in the pot, bringing it to just around a boil, and letting it simmer!
I love to stir, and smell the aroma, and fiddle with it while it simmers, but it's probably not needed. I usually decide it's done when most of the color has drained out of the berries and into the liquid. My guess is 10-15 minutes.
The adding of the honey. I am not making a syrup, it will still pour just fine when it's done. In this case I used most of a jar, to end up with 2.5 jars full of medicine total. One lucky jar has a little more honey in it then the rest, since I just re-used it!
When someone is using the elder magic in our home, we do about one shot glass 2-3 times per day. This first shot might be the tastiest, since it's still warm from the breW!!!
These will go in the fridge. They are not sealed!! Rabbit will probably use close to half of this over the next 3-4 days while he gets over the snot. Sometimes we are lucky enough to have some last long enough to have to worry about it still being good, but I have used it 2-3 weeks or more and not had any issues.
Thanks for reading! I am happy to share a bit of our elder magic with you all. May it cure what ails you and bring a smile to your heart thinking of your own summer loves!
A friend just gave me a couple of little rooted elderflower cuttings. I hope I can get them going without killing them.
They seem to be pretty hardy around here. They do prefer to grow near water, is the only thing I can think of that is location specific for us here in southern appalachia and the type of elder that is so common. I really wish you the best of luck with them.
This is awesome... you should enter it in our buildit challenge!!!! We are low on entries too so a few post modifications would make this a PERFECT entry!
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@riverflows I just looked at the buildit challenge (and resteemed it because it's amazing) but this is not something new that I have never done before, so I don't think it qualifies since that was one of the rules. I might have to figure out a different post for that challenge, but I have 19 days to enter with the extension! There is the medicine cupboard though...I was going to check that one out but haven't yet because I got way distracted by tokens and steem engine and all the shiny numbers!!!
Haha.. let me ask you this...how do WE know you haven't done it before if you don't tell us? He he. But yeah lots of time for another entry or ten... hope you are inspired! I am.. just need to collect some more things to do it!
Haha.. let me ask you this...how do WE know you haven't done it before if you don't tell us? He he. But yeah lots of time for another entry or ten... hope you are inspired! I am.. just need to collect some more things to do it!
I can't wait until we have enough elderberries to do this. They aren't something that grows naturally here but we have 5 plants growing, 2 are about 8 feet tall and fruiting now.
We used to make elderberry juice as we had lots of trees growing around our orchard. Now there is less and it is mostly for birds to munch on.
I love the flowers scent!!
@tipu curate
Upvoted 👌 (Mana: 15/25 - need recharge?)
The elder grow enough in this area that if I was motivated we could probably get enough for a batch of juice each year. Since I really love using the berries for medicine, that's what I save them for. I did make some lemon curd and elderberry pie to take to the potlucks we went to on Turkey day last week.
There's also some liquors out there that capitalize on elder flowers. St. Germain's (the brand) is like putting heaven on your lips!!! One day we will be set up to distill and I will make my own...though now I cheat and make an alcohol "tincture" and then cut that to use with drinks.
My aunt makes the flower syrup. She told me many times how to do it and I keep forgetting. It is basically water, sugar and lots of flowers....
Its like summer in a bottle!
Sweet.
A really good post on the elderberry! Have resteemed it.
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