Elder Flowers

There seems to be hope for a big crop of elderberries, Sambucus canadensis,  this year judging by the amount of blossoms on them. We picked several grocery bags full today. We will dry them for a pleasant tasting tea and I will make a large batch of elderflower wine. I'll put that recipe on the recipe page soon. When picking blossoms of any plant bear in mind the fact that if you pick all the blossoms there will be no fruit. We generally adhere to the rule of taking no more than 1/6 th of the available crop. The second pic is of the same area after we were done picking in that area.

The blossoms are also sometimes eaten in pancakes and fritters. Other than the ripe fruit and blossoms ,the plant is considered somewhat toxic. Despite this, there are quite a number of historic and folk remedies using various parts of the plant. I stick with the blossoms and fruit and don't worry about it. One thing that we must at least be aware of, if not actually worry about, is the fact that there are a few plants out there that are genuinely killers. Water Hemlock, Cicuta maculata, is one of them. I took the bottom pic 10 feet from the elderberry plants. They obviously have a superficial resemblance to each other.

POISON!!! Water Hemlock

If you have trouble distinguishing between a head of lettuce and a head of cabbage, maybe foraging is not for you. For most of us, there is no difficulty telling them apart. The real danger lies in not paying attention and accidentally picking the wrong blossom along with the one you want. The best insurance is to learn to identify any plant in your area which is toxic. If you know how to ID a plant there is little chance you will pick it by mistake. After all, our ancestors did it for thousands of years!