Elderflower

I went on a edible plant walk today. It was so lovely. It rained a little but just enough to keep the heat from being oppressive. I got to see several old plant friends and met a few new ones like white mulberry. The berries are a cream white color and in my opinion much tastier than the purple berries. There were several other plants that fell into the Could eat category but not quite want to eat category. But who to my surprise did I see? ELDER! In the 15 years I've been here I have not found Elder anywhere in Dallas. I just needed a little help to find her. It never hurts to ask for help.

Elder has multiple umbels on it's flower head and the flowerhead above was so perfect I didn't want to harvest it so I looked for more. When I found another cache of elder I took only 3 small umbels from one plant because the whole flowerhead was not totally open and I thought that the 3 I got were enough for a small mason jar. I really don't want to harvest more than I need.

 I took the flowers home and put them in a small jar and covered them with 50% alcohol. I'm not sure yet if this will be an Elder tincture or Elder cordial.

If I leave it as a tincture it will grace me with it's fever lowering abilities. I know of this ability. WebMd mentions that elder has blood sugar lowering abilities. I don't know about this but I am going to find out more on that. If I decide to make this into a cordial it will be a low carb version of the delightful and subtle St. Germain liqueur:St. Germain. Stay tuned to see how this turns out.