Bounty of Flowers

Midsummer blooms

Hello my readers, busy June sees the Wild Hygge group postponed as lots of you are away, so in place of my usual teaching this afternoon I thought I would send you all a post about Elder, and for my Paid Subscribers, you will receive another post with my Elderflower Cordial recipe. At Wild Hygge we were going to have a little pre-Midsummer celebration and learn about Elder, making and tasting Elderflower Cordial, so I’m sending this out so that you can all follow along at home! If you’d like to gain access to the recipe, just upgrade your membership now using this link:

Elder tree in flower, River Tweed, Berwick

Elder - Sambucus nigra

Here is a really lovely resource for looking up trees that I use a lot - The Woodland Trust. The page for Elder is here, and if you look through their blog section they have loads of articles which can be really helpful for identification of plants, insects and birds, and what to look out for each season here in the UK.

As I write this, Midsummer - the summer solstice and the longest day of the year - is a week away and lovely Elder really marks this occasion with arm-loads of beautiful, frothy white flowers. Often I can smell them before I see them; the scent is heady, floral and honey-tinged and always smells better and stronger on a sunny day. If you go foraging for elderflowers, pick a dry day and pay attention to the blooms. It can be easy to get over-excited by the amount of flowers and pick everything within reach, but for the best flavour you need to pick the flowers at their peak.

Elderflower ‘heads’ are the whole cluster of tiny flowers together. You can see from my photos above, that some heads are still budding, the flowers are tightly enclosed in little green balls and wont have any flavour yet. Some heads have half of their flowers open and half still in bud, and I wouldn’t pick these either. Elderflower heads where all of the flowers have opened, the flowers have a dusting of yellow pollen over them, and none of the little white star-shaped flowers have gone brown, are perfect to pick.

If you take care to look at each flower head before you pick it, you’ll get the best tasting cordial, tea or syrup. I tend to also bring each flower head up to my face after I pick it, to sniff it and check the scent. Any that don’t pass this final test, that don’t smell wonderfully sweet and honey-like, I place back down on the grass by the tree, face-up so that insects can still feast on it. Using all my senses like this not only gives me the very best Elderflower harvest to take back home, but it allows me to completely immerse myself in this ritual, to drink in this time of high summer and receive the blessing of Elderflower.

Midsummer basket - Elderflower, Mugwort, Pine tips and Rose petals

And you don’t even have to pick and use these lovely blooms to share in the Midsummer magic. Simply noticing the Elder trees as you pass them, naming them, smelling the flowers in reverence, will be enough to bring your their blessing. The shape of the flower heads encourages us to cup one in both hands, and bring it to the face like a chalice of water to drink from, drinking in that energy with the scent.

Elder trees are steeped in folklore and magic, particularly potent at 2 times of year - at the descent of the sun in Autumn when the berries are ripe, full and dark, this tree is giving out it’s immune-supporting medicine and guiding us energetically to look after ourselves for Winter. But right now, around Midsummer, the flowers are pulling us in a different direction. One of celebration, child-like joy and really guiding us to savour the moment. The sight and smell of the flowers really makes you physically stop in your tracks and on an energetic level the medicine of Elder is helping us to stay present and connect within. Elderflowers are wonderful for helping the intuition, supporting your link to the divine or higher realms, and assisting with clarity of thought and intention.

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Would you like to connect deeper with Nature, and read more of my guidance on what’s in season? If you upgrade to my paid Wild Revival membership, you’ll receive more posts like these where I go deeper into the folklore, medicinal and culinary uses, and energetics of our local and native plants in the UK. Become more familiar with the plant allies all around you and see what a difference it can make to your life!

When you upgrade to paid, you gain instant access to my previous member-only posts, including downloadable pdfs, and you’re welcomed into the Wild Revival community. You’ll also be able to view my Elderflower Cordial recipe!

See you there

Jo xx