Elder (Sambucus nigra) was once regarded as one of the most magically powerful of trees, it is a forager’s favorite and its flowers are the scent of summer. We’re lucky to have an abundance of Elder trees growing around us, and making cordial and wine are fast becoming a yearly tradition.

Foraging Guidelines

When foraging please remember to be safe and respectful. Here are a few pointers:

1. Be 100% sure.  This is for your own health & safety! Many plants have poisonous lookalikes, so start with plants you really know.  Use a good plant identification guide, or even better, a local person who can identify the plants with you the first few times, until you are confident that you can identify the plant from lookalikes.  If you’re still nervous – you can always grow your own plants from seed, so you are 100% sure of the origin!
2. Consider the environment. Wild food is usually free of pesticides and fertilizers, but you need to watch out for other things such as pollution and animals.  Pick away from busy roads, “above dog height”, and avoid water plants near cattle.
3. Allow for continuation.  Always leave more than you take.  Try to pick a little from several different locations rather than stripping one location. Pick a few leaves from each plant rather than all the leaves from one.
4. Be aware of your rights. In England, you can forage for personal use, but not if you’re making products to sell.  Check your local laws for rules in your own area. Don’t pick on private property or in conservation areas.

Edible Parts:

Flowers (raw): can be made into cordial, syrup, sorbet, ‘champagne’, or even battered and fried.

Berries (cooked): taste a bit bland/sour/bitter and are better used in puddings, sauces, pickles or wines.

Caution: The rest of the tree is poisonous and contains compounds that are metabolized into cyanide within the body. Even the berries contain small amounts of cyanide inducing glycosides but cooking or fermentation destroys the toxins.

Identification:

Most people will recognize the flowers or berries quite easily but let’s go into a little bit more detail about the elder tree.

Appearance:

• Bark: The bark is greyish-brown. When young it is often dotted with light brown lenticels (bumps or warts). As it matures it becomes furrowed and corky.
• Branches: Young twigs are green, light and brittle. As as they mature they turn light grey-brown. The young branches are very brittle and filled with a creamy-white pithy tissue – bad for climbing, but good for a musical instrument.

• Leaf Buds: The buds are arranged in pairs – opposite to one another. They are purplish and spiky-scaled. When the buds burst after winter, the emerging leaves have a distinct red tinge to them.

• Leaves: Compound (composed of several distinct leaflets joined to a single stem) and pinnate (having leaflets on each side of a common axis) with five or seven leaflets. Leaflets are arranged opposite to each other with one single leaflet at the tip. The edge of each leaflet is toothed and there may be small hairs on the underside. The top of the leaflets is darker green and matt, while the underside is paler.

• Flowers:  Borne on large, flat umbels, 10–30cm across, the individual flowers are white/cream colored, highly scented, and have five petals. Pick the them on a warm, dry day.

Habitat:

Normally Elder needs a rich and damp soil. Its natural habitat is on river banks and in wet woodlands, but you can find it almost anywhere. It is a very common shrub, often colonizing new open ground.

Season:

• Flowers start to develop in late April to early May, with June being the peak time for collecting tapering off into July when berries develop and August when the berries start to ripen.

Possible Confusions:

• It is quite difficult to confuse this tree with any other especially when in flower or fruiting. At other times the leaves can be crushed and smelt, they have an unpleasant smell that some compare to cats urine.

Related Forage:

Another crop from the Elder is the Wood Ear (Auricularia auricula-judae), a mushroom that can be found at all times of year growing from dead limbs or stumps of Elder.