Your Backyard Fruit Bowl – The elder’s bounty: Elderflowers and elderberries

Elderflowers: Image by ralphs_fotos from Pixabay.com

“And besides, look at elder flowers and bluebells - they are a sign that pure creation takes place - even the butterfly.”
- D.H. Lawrence, English novelist.

As I write this, it is mid-October and the first flowers are opening on the plants that make up my elder hedge. I have a row of alternating white- and pink-flowered plants which form a solid roadside boundary. Legend has it that an elder planted near a house will protect its occupants from evil, so I’m glad for their presence. However, I’ll heed the ancient lore that surrounds the elder: burning timber from said plants inside the house could release the devil within, and nor should cradles for infants be carved from it.

Abundant in the wild throughout Europe, and a common hedgerow species in the United Kingdom, elders are most commonly found growing as a plant of wild places as opposed to being commonly cultivated here in New Zealand too. An elder tucked somewhere on your property means delicate ornamental foliage and fragrant flower clusters in spring, shade and shelter in the summer months and if you beat the birds, a harvest of purple-black berries in late summer to early autumn.

Although the flowers and berries are most commonly utilised in modern times, every part of the plant (and apparently even the soil it grows in and any water from a spring which passes its roots, if there should be one) have had their purpose in days gone by. Legend has it that elders are never struck by lightning, so bear this in mind next time you’re out on a nature walk in a thunderstorm!

The elder: a short family history

The common or European elderberry, Sambucus nigra, belongs to the Adoxaceae or Moschatel family, and relatives include the ornamental Viburnum spp. These two genera were historically placed in the Caprifoliaceae (honeysuckle) family, but revisions in recent years have seen them reclassified.

Both the flowers and fruit of the elder have been utilised by many cultures for thousand of years; not only as a food source but also for a multitude of medicinal purposes. The berries contain good levels of vitamins and minerals and are particularly high in fibre.

Both the elderflowers and elderberries have been widely used over the ages to ease the symptoms of colds and flu and many treated them as a general cure-all. These properties have been backed up by scientific research, with black elderberry juice shown to stimulate the immune response, helping shorten the duration and severity of symptoms associated with the influenza virus1,2. Hippocrates himself referred to elderberries as “the medicine chest” of all herbs, given their healing properties and countless uses.

A variety of coloured dyes for fabric can be obtained from the elder, and these were traditionally valued and used in the production of Harris Tweed. The berries give shades of blue to purple, yellows and greens are obtained from the leaves, with the bark giving grey to black tones.

Insects and birds adore the flowers and fruit alike – an elder or two in the garden will provide a boost for the wildlife within. Perhaps keep them out of direct firing range of your washing line though, as purple splatters on your best sheets are enough to completely ruin laundry day.

Suitable climates and growing conditions

Elder tree in flower: Image by janmaybach via Pixabay.com

Elders are easy-care, vigorous shrubs to small trees. These hardy specimens do best on sandy or loamy soil types which are reasonably fertile, but can tolerate heavier soils and even short periods of waterlogging too.

They are a fast-growing species, with shallow, fibrous root systems, so don’t cultivate deeply in their direct vicinity. The dense network of roots also lends them as a useful species for soil stabilisation. The stems are often hollow, with the name elder thought to be derived from the Anglo-Saxon ‘aeld', (fire), as these hollow stems were used as sort of rudimentary bellows to blow air into the centre of fires. Elders are happy growing in sun and semi-shade, and as I’ve mentioned they make excellent windbreaks and hedges, being quite easily established in amongst existing trees – a nod to their traditional position in the hedgerow ecosystem. Elders lose their leaves in winter, allowing the winter light to filter through. They are not overly tolerant of salty, exposed coastal conditions.

Allow two to five metres between plants for specimen plantings, decreasing to a metre or so if you are establishing a hedge or windbreak. They can reach 6 – 15 metres in height and have a lifespan of around 60 years.

In New Zealand, elders are uncommon north of the volcanic Central Plateau, but common in the southern half of the North Island and very common throughout much of the South Island.

Elderflowers bloom during spring, ready for gathering from October to late November in central New Zealand and are insect-pollinated. The berries take about 60-90 days to mature from fruit set, and are ripe in February-March and are a real bird-magnet. They are mildly poisonous raw and capable of causing an upset stomach, so must only be consumed in cooked form. Green berries and leaves are unpleasantly purgative, avoid consuming them at all costs.

You’ll probably need to net your crop in urban settings to ensure a harvest, this is less likely necessary in rural environments when larger numbers of plants are present. My heaviest harvests have always been from plants growing wild. Both the fruit and flowers are harvested by the cluster – with a little practise, you’ll get to know the sweet spot on the stem and you can break them off with a satisfying snap. Use both the fruit and flowers the day you harvest, as they don’t keep well.

You can germinate elderberries from seed, but it’s a bit fiddly. They are, however, super easy to strike from hardwood cuttings in winter. Simply cut one year old wood in 15-20 cm lengths (allow 3-4 bud pairs per cutting), dip in some hormone gel or powder if you have it (not essential) and pop into a deep pot containing 50:50 sand and pumice, leaving just the top set of buds above ‘soil’ level. If you have a heat mat, bottom heat will help, but I’ve always had great success leaving the pot sitting outside, under the eaves of the garden shed for the winter. Come spring, away they shoot, with fibrous roots aplenty and are usually ready to be separated and potted on in some decent potting mix soon thereafter. I add some compost or sheep pellets at this stage to give them a good start in life. If you have a friend with a good plant (I’m especially keen on the pretty pinks and reds), ask nicely and you should be able to obtain enough wood to start a few plants of your own.

Culture and care

Elders are the ultimate easy-care addition to your garden – pretty much plant and walk away. On bonier soil types, a handful or two of general fertiliser applied a couple of times during the growing season won’t go amiss and will help maximise fruit yields. In drier regions, I have known elders to succumb in drought conditions, so keep the water up if you can to avoid losing a prize specimen.

Pruning

The elder’s usual growth habit when left to its own devices is a small, multi-stemmed, shrubby tree. They can be trained to have a single, solid trunk if you prefer. To keep its vigorous growth in check, you can prune it back hard in the autumn. The main thing to bear in mind is that fruit is produced on the current season’s growth. Remove old, spent stems to encourage new stem growth the following spring. You can actually prune right back to the ground every few years or so and the plants will regrow, or you can take a more moderate approach, leaving about half a dozen one-year-old shoots and half as many again two-year-old shoots.

Pests, diseases and what to do about them

Again, there is little to worry about here – aphids and spider mites may cause minor damage, but nature will usually take care of these for you.

Varieties: My top picks

Several cultivars are available, e.g., ‘Gerda’, which has pinky-red flowers and dark red foliage. There are also golden-leaved forms, and a subspecies, S. nigra fructo-lutea with golden yellow berries.

What to do with your crop

Elderberries: Image by anemone123 via Pixabay.com

Elderflowers and elderberries are super-versatile and can be used to flavour all manner of desserts, drinks and sweets. Serve elderflower syrup with pancakes for a floral variation on a theme, add to gooseberry fool to punch through the rich creaminess, ditto by adding to yoghurts and mousses and it also makes an aromatic jelly. John Wright gives a recipe for Elderflower Delight (in the bent of Turkish Delight) in the River Cottage Handbook No.7 (Hedgerow). I’m putting that on my must-make list for November. You can also dry the flowers and add them to herbal tea blends.

One of my spring goals is to always harness the musky, sweetly-sweaty fragrance of elderflowers so I can enjoy them right throughout summer and beyond. Each November, I make a batch of elderflower champagne, which we enjoy at Christmastime, and at least one batch of elderflower cordial, which can be enjoyed not only as a drink, but also used as a dessert addition and flavouring as mentioned above. If you have a red or pink-flowered elder, you’ll have the bonus of your cordials and champagne carrying the same vivid hue.

Elderflower champagne

You’ll need a large container which can be loosely covered to brew this in – I use a large stainless-steel stockpot.

Before you start, pour a couple of tablespoons of lukewarm water into a teacup. Add a couple of good pinches of dry instant yeast, the kind you use for home breadmaking, plus the same amount of granulated sugar, and stir well. Leave on the windowsill until frothy.

Pour 4 litres boiling water and 700 g granulated sugar into the stockpot and stir well to dissolve the sugar. Add another 1 ½ litres of cold water and mix well.

Remove the zest of four medium lemons or six limes with a potato peeler and add to the stockpot. Then juice the fruit and add this in too. Don’t worry if any seeds get in, you’ll be straining everything off later.

Add 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar (don’t use apple cider vinegar please – I’ve done this and unwittingly turned the whole brew into an elderflower-infused sparkling apple cider vinegar tonic. It’s not entirely unpleasant or indeed undrinkable, just not what we’re aiming for!).

Lastly, stir in 30 dry, freshly-gathered elderflower heads. Give them a shake to dislodge as many of the small beasts inhabiting the flowers as possible before you dunk them under – a word of warning for the squeamish, some will likely remain, but as I said, you’ll strain them out later!

Let the whole lot cool to lukewarm, then stir in the bubbly yeast mixture. Cover with the stockpot lid – if it has open vent holes around the handle, upend a teacup on top to keep fruit flies etc. out. Don’t seal it airtight – the gas produced during fermentation needs to escape. Let the brew ferment in a warm room for six to seven days, stirring halfway through – you will likely hear fizzing during this time.

You’ll need some plastic soft drink bottles with screw-cap lids, rinsed really well in hot soapy water for bottling in, plus a funnel, a sieve plus some fine muslin/cheesecloth or a jelly bag and some extra sugar.

Strain the fermented mixture through the sieve lined with cloth or a jelly bag into a large bowl (or bowls). Remove the spent flowerheads and peel from the bag and pop in the compost. Using the funnel, add 1 tsp sugar to each bottle, and pour in the elderflower mixture, leaving 4 cm of headspace. Screw on the lids and invert to mix.

Store in a cool place until the bottles are rigid when you squeeze them (at least a week, give it a month to allow the full flavour to develop if you’re patient). The champagne will keep for at least six months stored cool and dry, and the alcohol content will increase over time, becoming more potent and headier as time goes by! Be warned that the bottles may also start to deform and could even blow their lids (in the bent of home-made ginger beer), so keep them somewhere where it won’t matter if this happens!

The flavour of elderflowers combines really well with a number of other fruits in season around the same time: rhubarb, gooseberries and strawberries. If you’re cooking gooseberries for a fool, or rhubarb for a cake or crumble, add a handful of elderflower clusters in the pot when you stew your fruit – you can retrieve the stems later. Sweeten to taste with elderflower cordial instead of sugar or honey for an extra elder hit.

Elderflower cordial

A long-keeping flavour boost to bring a burst of spring to long cool drinks on a summer day, add to cocktails or take fruit desserts to the next level.

20-30 elderflower heads
750 ml water
750 – 900 g granulated sugar, I prefer mine less sweet.
2 whole lemons or 3 limes, sliced thinly
40 g citric acid

Bring the water and sugar to the boil in a large saucepan. Give an occasional stir until the sugar dissolves, then remove from the heat.

Add the flowerheads, sliced citrus fruit and citric acid. Cover with the lid, as for champagne, and keep in a cool place for three days, giving it a good stir each day. On day three, have a taste – if it’s to your liking, strain into sterilised bottles and seal. If you’d like it stronger, leave for another day before completing this step. I like to store this in repurposed plastic cream bottles and freeze, it keeps for years this way and avoids the development of cloudy deposits over time.

If you’re lucky enough to stumble upon a good crop of elderberries, try making some elderberry syrup to stash away for winter. It’s a great tonic to help banish ills and chills. Barker’s of Geraldine, the iconic Kiwi fruit processing company, used to include elderberries in one of their cordial blends a few years back.

500 g ripe elderberries, zipped off the stems using the tines of a fork
2 cups water
350 g sugar of your choice
Juice of a medium lemon
Optional – a few whole cloves

Place the elderberries in a large pan and cover with water. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a large bowl, pressing the berries gently with a wooden spoon to extract as much juice as possible.

Pour the juice back into the saucepan, retaining the cooked berries separately. Add the sugar and lemon juice to the juice in the saucepan and return to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

Bottle in hot, sterilised glass bottles with screw cap lids – 300 ml repurposed juice bottles are perfect. Add a couple of whole cloves to each bottle before sealing if you like for a spicy nuance.

Store in a cool, dark place for up to two years. Dilute to taste with hot or cold water, depending on the season – if any survives the winter, it’s particularly nice in summer topped up with sparkling water, or sparkling wine if you’re feeling particularly fancy.

Pass the reserved cooked elderberries through a mouli to remove the seeds, and save the resultant pulp. This can be frozen and added to other berry jams for bulk and colour, or blended with fruit such as stewed apple or raspberries to make sheets of anthocyanin-rich fruit leather, dried in a low oven or dehydrator. I’ve also heard elderberries make a good vinegar.

In my university days (admittedly I was a viticulture student!) I had a crack at making elderberry wine, given that the fruit was freely available on the roadsides of rural Canterbury. We spent a weekend plucking rubbish sacks of elderberries from the hedgerows around Lincoln, and a good few hours afterward painstakingly popping the berries off the stems with forks. We brewed up several large containers of inky-coloured wine in a garden shed, but I have a vague memory of a rather messy explosion and I’m not sure we ever got to drinking any of the proceeds…

Elderberry may be considered a pest plant in some regions, so it’s always best to check before you plant.

1 Kinoshita et al. (2012) Anti-influenza virus effects of elderberry juice and its fractions. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 2012; 76(9):1633-8. doi: 10.1271/bbb.120112
2 Zakay-Rones, Z et al. (2004). Randomized study of the efficacy and safety of oral elderberry extract in the treatment of influenza A and B virus infections. J Int Med Res 2004 Mar-Apr 32(2):132-40. doi: 10.1177/147323000403200205

Planning your home orchard? Anna-Marie Barnes has information on most backyard orchard species.

Disclaimer: the information supplied above is of a general nature and provided as reference material only. In regards to pest and disease control, please consult your agrichemical consultant for suitable products, application rates and further region-specific information.

Anna-Marie Barnes is an active member of the New Zealand Tree Crops Association who endeavours to grow and preserve as much of her own fresh produce as possible. When the weather’s no good for gardening, she can usually be found inside working on a batch of homemade cheese or soap.

The New Zealand Tree Crops Association is a voluntary organisation promoting interest in useful trees, such as those producing fruit, nuts, timber, fuel, wood, stock fodder, bee forage and other productive crops. Find out more about the NZTCA here: https://treecrops.org.nz/

Image Credits:

Elder tree in flower: Image by janmaybach via Pixabay.com
Elderberries: Image by anemone123 via Pixabay.com
Elderflowers: Image by ralphs_fotos from Pixabay.com