I have heard that elder trees make good wands. They also give very aromatic tasty blossoms which you can make juice from, and a bit soury berries that are of good taste in a liqueur.
The blossoms
Except a mess, there is also an elder tree in my garden. Also in the small corridor behind the house there are quite a few elder trees. I have picked elder blossoms to make lemonade in spring (end May/start of June here).
Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
- about 25 nice and smelling inflorescences from elder (they flower half May/early June in the Netherlands)
- per liter water ½ kg sugar
- lemon, in pieces
- Jars, pan, mesh, clean towel, clean bottles (best cleaned with boiling water, so they’re sterile, but mind your fingers)
Preparation
Fill two big glass jars or a big pan with the elder flowers. Add water until they’re under water. Push a few pieces of lemon in, so the drink will keep it’s yellow color, but not too much so you keep the flower taste. Put the filled up jars or pan in a warm spot for a day (for instance in the sun).
Hang a mesh or a colander in a big pan and put a clean towel in. Pour the flowermix into the pan via the towel. Add the sugar and heat the elderwater while stirring until it cooks.
Add the lemonade in clean bottles and close them off.
When you drink the lemonade, add 1/5 lemonade to 4/5 water.
Perhaps next time I will try to use sugar syrup instead of sugar, which will make it more like syruppy lemonade too. I think the lemonade is quite ‘thin’ in a way yet.
The berries
This summer is the first time (finally!) I started on elder berries. There were enough bunches left in the garden and the pathway behind, with which I made a liqueur. It still has to wait for a few weeks before it’s done, so I’m not sure how good it is going to be! I have not done the fermenting process but just added berry juice to gin.
The recipe, which I found on internet, from the Dutch sugar company Van Gilse.
Ingredients
1 kg elder berries
0.8 l gin
0.5 kg sugar candy
3 spoons lemon juice
Pans, mesh or colander, clean towel, clean bottles
Making sugar syrup
Add 2.25 dl water to 0.5 kg sugar candy and heat it slowly while stirring. Once it boils, add the lemon juice. Let it boil on a small fire for 10 minutes. Then take the syrup off the fire and let it cool down a bit. Optionally poor it over into bottles to store.
Making elder berry juice
Pick bunches of ripe elderberries. Wash them. Take off the stalks and take out the green and red berries (they are slightly poisonous). Heat up the rest with 2 dl water until it boils, and then put the fire low, make sure it doesn’t boil anymore.
Let it cool down a bit, and then sieve the juice out into another pan via a towel in a mesh or colander. Press out the last juice from the towel.
Making elder berry gin
Measure the amount of juice. Add to 1 dl juice 1 dl gin and 0.5 dl sugar syrup.
Pour it into bottles. Keep them in store for at least 6 weeks before drinking.
You will have about 2 l of elder berry gin.
