Merry Meet to All of You!
It's the time of the year again, where the elder trees start to bloom, and there are some good reason to go foraging for them.
Apart from being of lovely taste, elder flowers, and later the fruits, are full of natural goodness.
The flowers contain tannins, potassium, phenols and flavanoids, while the fruits are packed with folic acid and vitamins A and C.
Elder is a good choice to treat colds and flu, because it promotes sweating in the body and so helping it getting rid of toxins (summer detox, anyone). Elderberry extract has been medically proven to inhibit certain strains of the flu virus and if taken in the onset of colds and flu, can noticeably speed up your recovery.
You can simply make an infusion from 5mg of dried elder flowers to one cup of water, leave it to infuse for 5-10 min and drink three cups a day.
Apart from being great flu fighters, elder flowers also make a good anti-inflammatory mouthwash to sooth painful gums and inflamed throats.
Simply put 50g of flowers to 1 litre of boiling water, boil for another 5 min and use 4-6 times a day, especially after meals.
On top of these health benefits, elder is also a plant steeped in magick, which I blogged about on the Herbal Chalice Blog:
http://theherbalchalice.blogspot.com/2009/06/tip-of-week-magick-elder.html
Go on, get out there, go mad for elder!
Summer Blessings,
Ilona
Great post, Ilona! How do you best dry and store the flowers? Sounds like a wonderful flu and cold remedy to keep at hand.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteyou best dry the flowers on the stalks, hanging upside down in a bunch.
When dried, you can easily remove the flowers with a fork.
Store in an air tight jar/container.