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Elder, Sambucus nigra

The fruit can be eaten cooked. Not very nice, but very healthy, also as juice or wine.

The flowers are used raw or cooked. They can also be dried for later use.

The flowers are crisp and somewhat juicy, they have an aromatic smell and flavour and are delicious raw as a refreshing snack on a summer's day, though look out for the insects.

The flowers are used to add a muscatel flavour to stewed fruits, jellies and jams (especially gooseberry jam).

They are often used to make a sparkling wine, and a refreshing cordial.

A sweet tea is made from the dried flowers.

Elder has a very long history of household use as a medicinal herb and is also much used by herbalists.

An infusion of the flowers is very effective in the treatment of chest complaints and is also used to bathe inflamed eyes. The infusion is also a very good spring tonic and blood cleanser.

Externally, the flowers are used in poultices to ease pain and abate inflammation. Used as an ointment, it treats chilblains, burns, wounds, scalds etc.

The fruit is depurative, weakly diaphoretic and gently laxative.

A tea made from the dried berries is said to be a good remedy for colic and diarrhoea. T

The fruit is widely used for making wines, preserves etc., and these are said to retain the medicinal properties of the fruit.

The plant is a valuable addition to the compost heap, its flowers are an alternative ingredient of 'QR' herbal compost activator and the roots of the plant improve fermentation of the compost heap when growing nearby.

The leaves are used as an insect repellent. (for more uses see the plants for a future database)

I have planned it into the garden as a pioneer species, as it’s very quick growing and also has this pioneer function in the natural world. (Noor)