(Sambucus nigra) Elder

The familiar white flower clusters of the European elder tree (Sambucus nigra) provide a bounty of culinary opportunities to the forager that encounters them.

Raw the flowers can be used to decorate salads or cakes, cooked they can be eaten as a green vegetable not dissimilar to tenderstem brocoli. They can also be battered and fried as elderflower pakoras my personal favourite way of eating this plant.

And of course they can be boiled in syrup to create elderflower cordial or fermented into elderflower wine.

They also provide a bounty of food to pollinating insects and later in the year their berries attract birds.