Elderflower Cordial
It is that time of the year to pick Elderflowers and make cordial.
I thought it was early!
I must admit, I noticed on my way back to West Sussex from North Devon (I made a quick pit stop to Glastonbury) at the beginning of May that Elderflowers were already flowering (I noticed in the car park!) I thought that was early, but the weather has been good for them.
Over the weekend I went out to pick a few towards my ingredients for the cordial along with water, sugar and citric acid.
At this time of the year, the hedgerows all around us are bursting with freshly blossoming elderflowers.
Legend
Arguably the most important, revered, spiritually charged and clinically important herbal medicine in British herbal history, the famed elder was known as “the medicine chest of the country people” since written records began. The Anglo Saxon name for the elder tree was “aeld” (from which “elder” derives itself), which means fire. This is because the stems of the elder are hollow and they were used to blow air through to help start cooking fires, much like bellows. The elder tree has immense legend and myth surrounding it. It was believed in Anglo Saxon England that if you burned elder wood you would see the Devil, but if you planted elder by your house it would keep the Devil away. It is also known as the ‘Judas tree’ as Judas Iscariot is said to have hanged himself from an elder tree after handing over Jesus to be executed. On that
note, the Church stated that the cross used to crucify Jesus Christ was made from the elder tree and thus was “evil.”
Identify
The tree itself is easy to identify as the leaves often appear as the greenest leaves in the hedgerow. They have a brightness and illumination about them that is quite unique. They are lightly serrated, spear shaped and around 5- 10cms long and around 3-5cms wide. They grow in opposing pairs. The bark of the tree is a greyish brown and is often gnarly in appearance.
The flowers begin to blossom as early as May and appear as clusters (that look like umbrellas in shape) of very small (less than 5mm in diameter) white blossoms that each have five petals. A tell-tale sign of the elder flower is its unique odour which can be strong and slightly overpowering if it is a hot sunny day.