especially love to do this.Elder berries fresh are just awful, any way you try to cook fresh berries they're
no good. Traditionally, they were dried, (2 weeks in the shade) and I've used some
dried ones. They are very good! Sort of between raisins and prunes. If dried, you
can soak and cook them with sugar, make pies, etc. Traditionally, dried berries
were mixed with deer meet and tallow, they were also used in soups and stews.
Elder berries are higher in vitamin C than other high-C fruits such as oranges.
They are also a good source of calcium, potassium, and other needed vitamins and
minerals. They are really awful-tasting unless the berries are dried. But when they
are, they are just about the most nutritious woods fruit there is.There are various stories about why fresh elder berries taste awful, which
maybe I'll tell sometime. It really seems as if almost everyone has forgotten about
this tree, and it seems so strange to me I would even forget its name. Here's a
couple bits of advice for women: (1) Men and boys shouldn't pick elder flowers,
they can pick berries. (2) Elder is women's trees, like wild cherries. Go around
among them in spring until you feel attracted to one of them. This is Ogimauikwe,
the headwoman tree of the group. Talk to her about what's bothering you. Leave
her some tobacco to show respect. When they are blossoming, come back and talk
to her again about it. Don't pick anything from that tree. Don't tell men or boys
anything about elder flowers as women's medicine. And since they read this too
probably I won't say anything more about it. Come to think of it, that's probably
why I can't recall its Indian name, because I would just automatically put it here
to be complete. If I promise not to write it down can I remember? ... No.RECIPE
Page--MAIN
MENUCREDITS: The photos of the elder tree were taken by Michael Moore. Elder flower
pannicle and berries scanned from the Colour Herbal by Nicholas Culpepper, 1649.
This neat book has stayed in print over 300 years. The latest edition is a large
paperback issued by Sterling Publishing of Tornonto, $17.95 (US), $24.95 (Can).
Culpepper was an interesting character: an early 17th-century doctor who decided
to try to serve the poor instead of getting rich doctoring the rich like others of his
class were doing. He prepared his herbal to help country people, who were being
forced off their land to the slums of London, so they could recognize herbs thatNative Foods -- Elder
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