Friday Foraging #137 - 30th May 2025

Elderflower and Berry

The Elder tree also called the Sambucas nigra provides these delightful taste treats for us. The flowers first, currently out now and then the berries, so ensure you don’t strip the flowers or there won’t be any berries later in the year.

Easily found in the British countryside, woodlands, parks and gardens, the elder tree is also known as Black Elder, Ellhorn, Pipe tree, Bore tree, Eller and Holler. The white, frothy elderflowers bloom in late May and turn to berries in August. June is typically the best time of year to collect elderflower as the flowers are at their freshest and fully open.

Elder are small hedgerow trees with corky bark that gets deeply fissured as it gets older. The leaves have 5-7 oval leaflets with feathery edges. The flower umbrellas of dense, tiny white/creamy coloured flowers that smell divine and particularly strong on warmer days.

Using sharp scissors or secateurs snip the whole umbral, but only take 2-3 per tree and then move onto another.

Bear in mind that both water hemlock and cow parsley look like the elderflower umbral, so always check what they are growing on. The Elder looks like a tree or bush where as the other 2 grow straight up from the ground.

Only pick the open flowers, if the umbral is still little buds, return to the spot in a few days and try again.

In August the flowers will have all turned to berries that are a lush juicy deep red/burgundy in colour. Again do not over pick otherwise there will be nothing for the birds and insects to eat.

There are so many gorgeous recipes you can use both flower and berry for and the flower heads are really nice battered and deep fried, the usual things of course are elderflower cordial and berry syrup. Both are lovely in cakes too.

Enjoy )0(