Foraging For Elderflowers In Late Spring

Why Elderflowers Are Worth The Walk

Late May into mid-June is the sweet spot for elderflower. Head out on a still, dry morning once the dew has lifted and the hedgerows will be frothy with flat, creamy-white plates of blossom, each one small and starry but packed together into a saucer-sized head. The scent is the giveaway — somewhere between grape, lychee and a warm summer evening. It carries a fair distance on a quiet lane, so follow your nose as much as your eyes.

Elder is generous. It grows almost everywhere in Britain, from Devon lanes to Scottish field boundaries, and a single mature bush can carry dozens of heads. That abundance is exactly why it makes a good first foray into foraging: you can pick a decent basketful in half an hour and still leave plenty behind for the birds and the berry crop later in the year.

Telling Elder From Its Lookalikes

Elder (Sambucus nigra) is a shrub or small tree with woody, often hollow stems, soft pinnate leaves, and those distinctive flat-topped flower heads. The leaves have a slightly rank, green smell when crushed — not unpleasant, but unmistakably elder. The flowers themselves smell sweet and heady.

Things worth knowing:

• Cow parsley and hogweed also carry white umbels, but they grow on hollow green stems with feathery leaves, and hogweed sap can burn skin in sunlight. If the stem isn't woody, it isn't elder.
• Dwarf elder is a low-growing plant of rough ground with a sour, unpleasant smell. Avoid it.
• Red-berried elder flowers earlier, with more rounded, conical heads. Leave it be.
• Only use the flowers. Elder leaves, stems, roots and unripe berries are not for eating, and raw green parts are best avoided entirely.

If you are new to this, take a good field guide, and pick alongside someone who knows the plant. Never eat anything you cannot identify with complete confidence.

Choosing A Good Picking Spot

Hedgerows along quiet country lanes, old railway paths, field margins and the edges of churchyards are ideal. Give busy roads a wide berth — the plants beside an A-road are coated in dust and exhaust, and the flowers hold onto it. The same goes for land sprayed by the council, or hedges immediately beside arable fields that may have been treated.

Beyond that, be thoughtful about where you pick:

• Pick from above knee height where dogs and livestock are likely to have been.
• Ask permission on private land, and check whether the site is a nature reserve or SSSI with its own rules.
• Take a few heads from many bushes rather than stripping one plant bare.
• Leave the lower, harder-to-reach heads — they feed the insects, and later the blackberries and birds.

Picking Well On The Day

Timing matters more than technique. Pick when the flowers are fully open, fresh and creamy-white, before they dull to grey and start dropping. A dry, warm morning gives the strongest perfume; heads picked after rain taste thin and wash out the pollen that carries so much of the flavour.

Snip or pinch each head just below the point where the little stems branch out, so you keep the whole plate intact. Take a shallow basket or a roomy bag — piled deep in a plastic tub, the heads sweat and brown within hours. A gentle shake as you go dislodges most of the beetles and flies without bruising the blossom.

If you must wash them, dunk briefly in cold water and shake thoroughly dry on a clean tea towel. Otherwise, just pick them over at the kitchen table, nudging out any stragglers with a fingertip.

Three Things To Make While They're Fresh

Elderflower fades fast. Aim to use heads within a day of picking, or freeze them on a tray and bag them for later.

• Cordial. Roughly 20 to 25 heads, 1kg sugar, 1.5 litres water, two lemons sliced, and a teaspoon each of citric and tartaric acid. Pour boiling water over everything, cover, and steep for 24 hours. Strain through muslin, bottle, and dilute to taste with still or sparkling water.
• Fritters. Whisk 100g plain flour with an egg and enough milk to make a thin batter. Dip whole flower heads, fry in a shallow pan of hot oil for a minute or so each side until golden, then drain and dust with caster sugar. Eat straight away — they do not keep.
• Sparkling wine. Four litres of water, 1kg sugar, the juice and zest of two lemons, 15 heads and a teaspoon of wine yeast into a sterilised bucket. Stir daily for five days, strain into a demijohn under an airlock, and leave to ferment out before bottling. It is ready to drink young and slightly petillant.

A Note On Leaving Some Behind

The best foragers are the ones who come back next year to a hedge in better health than they found it. Take what you need, leave the rest, and tread lightly around the base of the bush. In September those same heads will have become clusters of dark berries, food for blackbirds and thrushes — and, if you are quick, for a batch of elderberry syrup to see you through the winter. Late spring is just the opening act.