The European elderberry
Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2022 12:53 pm
Here's ramble. There's a type of non-alcoholic cider people have made from the beginnings of time in Europe, from the flowers of the elderberry bush. It looks like this, and these are pictures from the web, not ours.
We grew up looking forward to drinking this in the beginning of the summer, when the Elderberry bush flowers. It's easy to make, it has a unique tasty flavour, and it's very refreshing. Many years have passed and as an adult I again wanted to do this, especially for our kids. In Europe the elderberry bush grows pretty much everywhere, sides of the roads, edges of forested areas, etc. People try to harvest it from places where there is less pollution, of course. A few years ago I noticed not far from us some bushes that looked identical to the elderberry I knew, so I collected some. But the flowers had almost no smell. The elderberry flowers I remembered from my childhood have a definite and quite strong smell. After some searches I learned that there is an American variety of the elderberry bush, which is probably what I found.
The search for the elderberry continued. Three years ago I was biking on my way to work on a small street in a very affluent neighbourhood in Toronto, and saw a big bush that looked like elderberry, right next to a big church. It was late July so the timing seemed right. And it was the European variety, very fragrant. I went inside the church and I talked to the person in charge there, and they told me it would be no problem to take some cuttings, which I did. A total of four short (about one inch) branch ends from the very bottom of the bush which was huge, like 16 feet in diameter. The cuttings were about 3/16 in thick; put them in a big jar with water, and completely forgot about them for about a month. Found a lot of thin roots on all of them. Transferred them to pots for the winter, then put them out in a small area where my wife had some flowers. They grew some new shoots that summer, but nothing crazy. In the fall last year I moved them to another area near the edge of the property where we thought it would be a good spot for them to stay. I didn't think they would survive winter, they were little, and no deep roots.
To my surprise this Spring they sprung with many new shoots, and it's a nice little bush now. Not only, but we also had several flower patties and even made cider twice already. Not much, but enough to get a good taste. The flowers, if left to dry on a paper towel, also makes very very nice herbal tea.
I read that some people wait until they get berries and make something out of that. We never did, so I don't know.
And this ends my ramble about the elderberry bush.
We grew up looking forward to drinking this in the beginning of the summer, when the Elderberry bush flowers. It's easy to make, it has a unique tasty flavour, and it's very refreshing. Many years have passed and as an adult I again wanted to do this, especially for our kids. In Europe the elderberry bush grows pretty much everywhere, sides of the roads, edges of forested areas, etc. People try to harvest it from places where there is less pollution, of course. A few years ago I noticed not far from us some bushes that looked identical to the elderberry I knew, so I collected some. But the flowers had almost no smell. The elderberry flowers I remembered from my childhood have a definite and quite strong smell. After some searches I learned that there is an American variety of the elderberry bush, which is probably what I found.
The search for the elderberry continued. Three years ago I was biking on my way to work on a small street in a very affluent neighbourhood in Toronto, and saw a big bush that looked like elderberry, right next to a big church. It was late July so the timing seemed right. And it was the European variety, very fragrant. I went inside the church and I talked to the person in charge there, and they told me it would be no problem to take some cuttings, which I did. A total of four short (about one inch) branch ends from the very bottom of the bush which was huge, like 16 feet in diameter. The cuttings were about 3/16 in thick; put them in a big jar with water, and completely forgot about them for about a month. Found a lot of thin roots on all of them. Transferred them to pots for the winter, then put them out in a small area where my wife had some flowers. They grew some new shoots that summer, but nothing crazy. In the fall last year I moved them to another area near the edge of the property where we thought it would be a good spot for them to stay. I didn't think they would survive winter, they were little, and no deep roots.
To my surprise this Spring they sprung with many new shoots, and it's a nice little bush now. Not only, but we also had several flower patties and even made cider twice already. Not much, but enough to get a good taste. The flowers, if left to dry on a paper towel, also makes very very nice herbal tea.
I read that some people wait until they get berries and make something out of that. We never did, so I don't know.
And this ends my ramble about the elderberry bush.