~ Elderflower ~

Our Boy is happy. It's the time of the Elderflower again and for the past four days our house has had the bewitching, dreamy, lazy~summer~evenings smell of this creamy exquisite flower curling around its rooms.

Every year I make twelve litres of cordial, which he almost single~handedly consumes over the next few months...it has yet to last him a year! 

I love the whole process of it.....wildcrafting from trees abundant with the blooms.....

saying a silent thank you to the Mother Elder

 ~ asking permission from each tree before beginning ~ 

Picking the flowers that shine out from the rest, as they let me know they are the ones I can take, then saying thank you and leaving an offering....I cut little pieces of my hair as that is what feels right for me.

I have been making this for the last nineteen summers and I love how the annual ritual has brought an efficiency to the process. Although I am mindful as I work, I do not need to think about what I am doing...my body has the memory of the practice deep in its bones...the same as when I give a massage.

Today was bottling day and it is ultimately satisfying to have fifteen green, ceramic~topped beauties ~ and one little clear one ~  filled with sweet, tangy deliciousness lined up in the cupboard.

The Elder is one of my favourite herbs and, as Our Boy seems to get one bout of very high fever every winter (except when we home~schooled him for four years!), I always use the dried flowers in an infusion...along with yarrow and boneset (Eupatorium perfoliatum)....to help control the high temperature.
Early autumn brings the pleasure of making a tincture out of the Elderberries....

I love to make our herbal medicines and Sambucus is one I always keep in supply. It has the desirable action of disabling the flu virus. Apparently it makes the needle-like protrusions that the virus uses to pierce our cells, soft and jelly-like, thus rendering them useless. It has the added bonus of being warming and comforting when we are feeling ill.

On~going in the kitchen is Kombucha and, more recently, Kefir~making. The Kombucha is like a fine pear cider at the moment, and the three of us need a regular turn~over of eight litres. I seem to be bottling every other day.

It took me a little time to get used to the smell and taste of Kefir, but now I am enjoying it....especially for breakfast, poured over blueberries.....and in a few days it will be our very own raspberries....there were nine ripe today....yay.

What do you like to make in your kitchen?