Native American Herbal, Plant Knowledge

A large, red elder in full

flower, with a small inset of a

bunch of flowers. Taken by

Michael Moore of Herbal

Research Foundation. Big pic,

for better identification of

leaves and flowers at the herb

Foundation's image database.

OK nobody's perfect. At least I still remember how to cook it. The flowers are

dried in the shade. After 2 weeks, break and brush them off the stems, then

continue drying them until the first frost. Then you can make teas of them. Tea is

made of them by pouring 1 quart hot water over 1 cup dried flowers and 2

teaspoons dried mint. Although this is a generally healthful good-tasting tea, OK

for men and children (though you would make it weaker then) it has some

women's medicine properties I'm not going to go into here. If you use it for that,

you should sing or pray when you pick the flowers and in my opinion leave

tobacco for the tree. If you are interested in this try to find somebody on your

reservation who can show you, and if you learn the names, please email me!

Fresh elder flowers can be fried into breakfast or dessert fritters. Batter:

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 oranges cut in quarters

Heat fat to medium, 375°. Remove the coarse stems from flower clusters, but keep

the small ones to hold it together. Dip cluster into batter whole, fry for about 4

minutes till golden, squeeze orange juice over them while still hot, roll in

granulated white sugar. Keep warm in an oven on paper towels until all are done.

Eat them by picking up, discard the "bones" (stems) like chicken es. Kids

Native Foods -- Elder

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