Elderflower Adventures - Exploring Different Ways to Eat and Drink this Awesome Flower
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- čas přidán 29. 06. 2024
- Today we'll be exploring some delicious ways to use elder flowers, from elderflower fritters, to elderflower cordial, as well as making use of its beneficial qualities through making tea.
Elderflowers (Sambucus spp.) are the delicate, creamy-white flowers that bloom on elder trees and bushes in the spring and early summer. They have a long history of use in traditional medicine and can be used in many ways, some of which we'll cover today.
They grow wild in many places around the world, so even if you don't grow these in your garden, you may be able to forage for elderberries in your area. Elder plants also produce berries in the Summer which can be used as food and medicine - check out the video I made about the berries and the bushes here - • Grow Your Own Food And...
RECIPES:
Elderflower fritters:
10-15 Bunches of elderflowers
70g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 heaped tsp icing sugar
1 pinch of salt
2/3 cup sparkling or soda water
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract (optional)
(add more flour or more water to adjust to desired thickness of batter)
Vegetable oil - (I used canola)
Mix dry ingredients together, add soda water and mix. Heat oil in a pot, once oil is hot drip a little batter mixture in, and if it fizzes well then it should be hot enough.
Dip elderflower cluster into batter then into hot oil, until golden (mine took around 20-30 seconds). Drain fritter on paper towel to get rid of excess oil.
Sprinkle on some icing sugar and/or honey and serve as dessert with stewed fruit or ice-cream. Please ensure everyone knows to avoid eating all green parts of the stem - very important!
Elderflower cordial:
20 Bunches of elderflowers
2 litres of water
3 tablespoons citric acid
1 lemon (juice and zest)
850g sugar
Strip elder flowers off the green stems into a large pot. Add water, citric acid, lemon juice and zest to the pot. Heat up, stir occassionally until it starts to boil. Take off heat, cover and leave overnight. Next day, strain through muslin cloth, put liquid back into pot and add sugar. Heat back up to boil for a few minutes, stirring to dissolve all the sugar. Pour hot liquid into sterilized and preheated glass bottles that have been in oven for 10 minutes at around 120c. Place lids on and leave to cool. Should store for several months.
To use, dilute with sparkling water to taste, you should only need a little cordial for each drink. Otherwise use in any other drinks you like ;)
Info on toxicity:
Elder plants have cyanide producing compounds in some parts of the plant, making them toxic if consumed - this includes the leaves, roots, seeds, unripe fruit, stems and bark. It's important to avoid eating any of these parts, and also note that ripe berries should be cooked before being eaten. Please ensure you know confidently how to work with this plant before consuming it, and also note there are some differences depending on the species of Elder.
I have a bunch more information about this plant here • Grow Your Own Food And... . It's definitely worth learning about as it's a plant that has many incredible medicinal benefits to offer.
It's always recommended do your own thorough research or consult with a healthcare professional before consuming foods that you're unfamiliar with :)
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Hi, I'm Kalem, and this channel features all sorts of unusual and exotic fruiting plants with tips of how to successfully grow them. I'm interested in all things gardening and love growing my own food and all types of edible plants.
I live on a 2 acre piece of land in New Zealand where we are turning a grass paddock into and abundant, edible paradise and food forest! So come along on this journey with me as I experiment with growing, and try to push the limits of what I can grow. I'll share with you my successes and failures so hopefully you'll learn from them and have a go yourself! Come learn with me and Subscribe to join this awesome community :)
0:00 Intro
0:37 Harvesting elderflowers
1:21 Elder flower fritters
3:30 Elderflower cordial
6:25 Elderflower tea
6:50 Learn about elderberries too
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BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL if you forage for these flowers, they closely resemble white snakeroot and hemlock which can both kill you! ❤
Thanks Adam! Yes, please always be very vigilant with any foraging to ensure you know 100% what it is and how to use it correctly
what does forage flowers mean?
@@HangryKitchen picking them from the side of a road for example, foraging is another word for collecting, specifically invented for doing it on certain things, like bushes in this example.
And be careful you pick the right species of elderflower too. sambucus racemosa and sambucus ebulis are poisonous.
Both grasses you mentioned are very different from Elderflower that grow much taller and have a very different sent. Elderflower resemble more a tree than a small herbaceous bush like snakeroot and hemlock. But in general peoples should NEVER foraging anything that are not familiar with. Is common sense
Clicked on the video for shirtless Kalem, stayed for the Elderflower recipes! :D
Haha glad you enjoyed 😅
Hi friends! Hope you're all doing well. Looking forward to getting more videos out, thanks so much for sticking around. Also, here's the Elderberry video I mentioned at the end :) czcams.com/video/wrj1XWnURXc/video.html
Over here we do jam with it, delicious 😋
If you pick the flowers, will the plant still bear fruit?
Woof!
You can be one with nature at my place anytime ;)
😳😂
Omg. 🔥🔥🔥 There he was cooling down with the elderflower drinks and here we are getting all hot. 😂
Yes, hot and bothered for sure.
What a truly gorgeous man.
You got some lucky neighbors! ;) Love your content.
Haha thanks John 🙈
That would SOOOO not scare me!!! 😍😍😍
Be one of nature 😃 The neighbours must be quite thrilled!
did I miss the naked gardener day ???? interesting dish
Haha no it's yet to come. But why limit it to one day ;)
My grandad used to make elderflower fizz, a slightly alcoholic pop which was so delicious we had it at christmas instead of champagne. It was an exciting process, as every now and then you would hear a deep boom, go into the pantry and find one of the demijohns had exploded ( so i wouldnt recommend if you live in a small flat !)
I love the end of the video :)
I’ll probably never see an elderflower, but that doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy every second of this video.
Glad you liked it! :)
Kalem! I just made these again. I ate them with “Mike’s Hot Honey.” Oh my goodness. It was the absolute best ever! I still like your recipe better than my grandma’s!
Sound delicious! Enjoy 😁
Very interesting video Kalem, thanks. The Elderflower fritters looked amazing and crunchy. That would be a very unique treat to give to guests if it is the right time of year. I always hear of the benefits of Elderberry extract that is good for colds. It is amazing that you can use so many parts of one plant, the flowers and the berries for many uses.
Thanks Ben, glad you enjoyed it, and yes such a versatile and useful plant :)
I remember collecting elderflowers with my grandfather so my grandma could make us elder cordial. It's a nice memory from my childhood
That's so cool!
"One with nature" - WOOF - scare or excite your neighbors 👀
I think he drank to much of that tea that makes him to get one with nature. Lol
Everything Elderflower is SO delicious!
You know it's a good day when you drop a new video!
Great ending mate!
In Italy we love drinking that elderberry concentrate (here it's called "Sambuco"), in the past people used old stems also as an instrument to blow oxygen on the fire because it has a pith that easily degradetes creating a hollow stem.
I don't know how is the situation there, but here we have a ton of elderberries, they can sometimes be considered as infestants, probably because birds love their berries and they spread the plant all over the fields 😂
yay so excited to see this - I'm so ready for some summer foraging!
Very informative video, thank you! I love that you incorporated cooking into them!
Fascinating video on how to infuse the essences of flowers into foodstuffs! Thanks for taking the time to make it, and share!
Those fritters look and sound delicious! My grandmother never worked with elderflowers but she made an incredibly good elderberry jelly. Enjoy your bountiful summer, Kalem.
I prefer drinks made of elderflower (there is also variant without cooking, only soaking them in water) over meals because as much as I paid attention to pick up young flowers, it always had that cat-pee specific taste, present as well in edelflower herbal tea. But aroma in liquids made of fresh flowers is stunning.
Cool I’m all for using plants and flowers to eat and drink
Your fritter recipe is much easier than mine! I love it. ❤. I’ll try it this June.
Elder flowers, "right" and your big smile"! thanks for the recipes and the tips. keep it up.
My Nan loved elderflowers thanks for giving me that memory of her 💜
I love elderflower cordial 🤩
Still a huge fan of the videos even after my accidental hiatus on watching, keep up the great work can’t wait to catch up on what I’ve missed!
Cheers Owen!
Ah your season must be a little bit later than here in Aus (VIC). I've been making Elderflower champagne for the last 4 years, but we also have a tea plant, and I love jasmine & green tea, so I'd love to try making a blend with elderflowers!
Ohh that sounds really good!
Ooh, cool! I love St. Germain Elderflower liquor.
Awesome video as always. Boiling an egg is too much effort for me, but I love watching the way you use things from your garden to create delicious treats.
Haha thank you! Raw eggs for you then? 😂
Your land and home look like such a dream to live in! You inspired me to attempt my own garden even though I have the opposite of a green thumb. Your videos are so relaxing and chill to watch :)
Good luck! The green thumb thing is a lie, gardening ability isn't innate, just a result of perseverance! Good gardeners are just people who kept trying
So glad you're getting into it, you'll get better overtime as with anything you practice and learn about. Hope it goes well :)
he's like a dream, too 😍
I love elderflower fritters! I have been making them for years.
I had a habit of just eating every elder berry I found when I was young, they do have sort of a laxative effect if you eat too many though lol. You can find them really easily in hedgerows in Oxfordshire and Berkshire in southern England.
Haha yeah eating too many is not so good, from what I've read if you have too much raw they can also cause vomiting as the raw seeds have some toxicity in them
Same here, I‘m from continetal europe. We had a huge bush in our garden in addition to the wild ones but that one was taboo because mom wanted all the fruits for juice. My dad also used the old branches to grow wood ear mushrooms (basically, cut it off and seperate the bark in a spot, then put a fresh wood ear into the cavity and close it again)
I love the aroma of elderflowers!
Every year, I'm making syrup from elderflowers and lemons.
Last summer, I made a liqueur, and it turned out amazing!
I've tried fritters and jam.
Champagne!!!
Foraged I’m Vermont last summer
Appreciate your using recipes I haven’t tried yet
Thank you:)
Elderflower cordial or carbonated water is the best drink on planet earth in my opinion, so tasty 😋
I agree, it's so nice, especially on a hot day!
Another great and informative video - thank for sharing.
Beautiful flowers
I appreciate videos on food forests and natural gardening. You are a good looking guy and you look good shirtless. Can we have more of that??
Another great video! Thank you!
We had summer for 6 months ago here on the northern hemisphere;) I actually made elderflower syrup, similar to yours. I loved it and I'm looking forward to making it again this summer, just before it's time to give birth to my first child:) and as always, great work!
That's awesome, and how cool, exciting times ahead for you :)
What a surprise ending! And what good advice. I would like to forage for more underutilized edible plants- though I'm not too confident. Thanks.
This is the life i want for myself ❤
Ya. I was def here for the basket.
Great video! thanks for coming back with new content! Love it! :D
Heyo, just thought I'd put my 2 cents in - been making elderflower cordial/syrup for decades. If you live in NZ, just about nobody bothers picking elderflowers so harvesting is easy as. Secondly, you don't need to pick off the flowers like you did, that'd be insane with the quantities we make for the family ahahaha. Just take the stem as you had it and just cut it with scissors as close to the flowers as is convenient for one cut. As long as you dont include the thick green stem bits then it'll be fine. Also you can chuck in entire lemon slices into the mix which saves you the time zesting/juicing. Few other bits and pieces but you're mostly there so it's fine :D
Thanks heaps for the tips! :)
Tasty. Now I'm hungry as well as thirsty.
Appreciate you so much 💛✨️ have a safe healthy abundant 2023
Thank you! Same to you :)
Thank you Kalem.
Thank you very much
😊thanks for that information!
Hi, loved this video on elderflowers as well! When making the cordial I lay the flowers in a flat tray and barely cover them with water. The green tissues mostly stick out of the water, you don't have to pluck off all the flowers and can just take out the stems whole. Thanks for posting! Nice to see some summer, although it is unusually warm here for the season.
Great tip, thanks!
Feel free to take your shirt off whenever you feel Ike it!! 😜
Wow, Looks good! I like the elder flower fritters too 😜
This guy is amazing!
Beautiful, my elder tree has already gone over to berries - many of them too high up for me to reach. Going to give it a good trim this winter and hopefully next year I'll have some flowers!
Nice video, so many uses to this one plant.
I identified some elderberry shrubs while I was checking out a lake near my house, and now I am seeing it everywhere. Especially when driving, bc it loves the edges!
Lovely video, thanks!
Oi Mate - Great to see ya again! Great video as usual!
Попка - супер).
I’ve just had elderberry fritters for dinner! Thank you for introducing this amazing treat. This video caught my eye some months back and I subscribed 😋 Knowing I had these shrubs on my land I have anticipated following your lead Kalem. Thank you
You have so beautiful flowers .Thank you for the recipes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!😍😍😍😍😍😍😍❤❤❤❤❤
You're very welcome :)
All new to me. Always interested in new plants.
Interesting wow thanks didn't know you could eat that.i think I'm gonna try that tea today!thanks
Please upload more videos, your channel is interesting and fun to watch.
Wow!
how delicious! I had that little tree, from which I only harvested its fruits to make an exquisite jam!
That thirst trap was long over due. Also feels like that video was done when it was naked gardening day 😂😂
Elderflower it has wonderful smell and is very tasty
Good to see your videos as always bro....truly inspiring.
Absolutely great job on the video description. I was curious on the location your growing and got my answer with plenty more to read. It’s obvious you have done some research; thanks.
❤Beautiful... All!
I traveled from Argentina, I was in your wonderful country, on two occasions. I am in love with the country and its people. I toured the Coromandel, Taupo and more...I always look forward to going back there...
Great idea and interesting video.
I fritter mine too, they’re delicious 👌🏻
Made elder flower syrup with lemon juice, boiling and cold method (no heating) too! The cold method is so much tastier and fresher
I am obsessed with these videos. It's like stardew year 6 stuff
Very nice!
I shall try some elderflower fritters next year now..im into courgette flowers done the same way - delicious!
Beautiful x2
I certainly wouldn’t mind being “one with nature” alongside him, that’s for sure. 🥵
He knows what he's doing lmao and its working so well on me
Missed seeing you, maybe it was me. Love seeing all that you do on CZcams. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Andy, yeah it was a bit of an unexpected gap due to some personal reasons but glad to be back posting :)
Very beautiful 👍
You live in a paradise
Hola,excelente video informativo!!!
Saludos.
Looks like such good cordial! Would be great in cocktails! 😍🤪
Is very good thanyou!
You don’t scare me!😉 New subscriber here. I like how you provided a useful way to use elder flowers. Adding in some nature was just a bonus!
We ferment a drink and it's really good
Beautiful man
Lovely video. Well done. I made my first batch of Elderflower cordial late last year and it is so delicious. One piece of advice...refrigerate the cordial because I had 2 bottles explode from sitting at room temp 😆 It starts to ferment really quickly which is why Elderflower champagne works so well 😉
Thanks for the info!
Fried flowers is something I never imagined being possible! This is so cool! :D
My favorite fried flowers are the male flowers of the zucchini plant.
I can't imagine it with fragrant flowers but squash flowers are sometimes fried in a batrer. Though most times it's stuffed with meat.
He’s good looking!.!.
Great video as always Kalem! I do love elderflower cordial, never tried making it myself though, I might give it a go in summer this year!
My neighbors made elderflower ice cream, pretty sure they used elderflower cordial. It was beyond amazing!!
@@rootkit0 Wow, that sounds incredible!
I have an English friend who makes Elderflower Champagne, it's absolutely delightful! She bought the recipe with her when she moved here from England, and promptly planted Elderberry trees in abundance. She also makes Elderberry wine and other things from the berries. Where can I buy Elderberry trees? I've not seen them in any nurseries?