The elder is in flower on the lanes in Cornwall this week. You can smell it before you see it, its sweet and slightly sharp at the same time, somewhere between honey and champagne.
The window varies depending on where you are and what the weather has done. In Cornwall it tends to run from end of May, well into June. The signal that the window is closing is the flowers themselves: when the outer edges start to brown and the scent turns, the berries are beginning to form. Once you see that, the year's elderflower is done. This is the week to make sure you catch this short flowering season.
What the name tells you
The word elder comes from the Anglo-Saxon aeld, meaning fire. The hollow stems of the elder were used to blow air into the centre of a fire, like bellows and by this principle, hollowed elder twigs were made into pipes, whistles, and chanters. The name links back to the many uses connected with fire.
The folk names that accumulated around the elder over the centuries are interesting. Bourtree in Scotland. Pipe tree, from the hollow stems. Tree of doom, which tells you something about how it was regarded in some traditions. Rob elder and sweet elder, from its uses. Battree which is a name recorded in medieval England, from the same root as the Old French battre, to beat, because elder sticks were used to beat flax.
The plant was understood through what it did and what it was made into, long before anyone thought to study it formally
The Elder Mother
In Scandinavian tradition, the elder tree was home to a figure called Hyldemöer — the Elder Mother. She lived in the tree, and the tree was hers. You did not cut elder wood without asking her permission first. If you did, she would follow you home.
This tradition was known in Denmark, Sweden, and across northern Europe. Hans Christian Andersen wrote a story about her in 1888, which tells you the belief was still alive and understood in the nineteenth century. In Denmark there was an old saying that anyone who stood under an elder tree on Midsummer's Eve would see the King of Fairyland ride past.
In Britain the tradition took a different form, but the instinct was the same. The elder was treated with particular care. You did not burn it on a fire — in some counties this was said to bring the devil into the house. You did not sleep under it. The green stalks and foliage are mildly toxic, which lent practical weight to the caution. The old rules around the elder were not entirely without reason.
Culpeper noted that the Elder was ruled by Venus. The protective uses in British folk tradition are extensive, elder branches kept over the door were said to keep lightning away, and carrying elder wood was thought to protect against witchcraft. The same tree that could not be cut lightly was also one of the most useful in the hedgerow.
How to gather the flowers
Gather in the morning if you can, when the flowers are fully open and the pollen is fresh. The heads should be flat, fully open, and smelling at their strongest.
Shake each head gently before you cut it. This dislodges any insects that have made themselves at home in the flowers. Do not wash the elderflower heads. The pollen is where the fragrance is, and rinsing the flowers removes it. You will be left with something that looks correct but tastes of very little.
Leave the heads that are still in tight bud, let them open fully first. Leave the ones where the outer flowers have started to brown. What you want is the flowers at their exact peak, which takes a little more attention than simply picking whatever is out.
The flowers can be stripped from their stems or left on them for steeping. The stems have a faint bitterness, which some people remove and some people leave.
The June Almanac zine goes into the elder in depth, its place in the Midsummer traditions, what Culpeper wrote about it, and the folk customs around gathering that persisted in the British countryside into living memory.
The June box goes can be bought as a one-off as a treat to yourself or a birthday gift, or as a monthly subscription.
From the still-room
Elderflower water was used as a face wash, as gathered dew from midsummer herbs was believed to have preserving properties, particularly around the solstice. The flowers steeped in water overnight, left outside in the June air, and used on the skin the following morning.
The botanical hair wash, which is now in the shop, is made from a different set of hedgerow plants, but it comes from the same understanding: that the plants around us have specific actions, chosen for specific reasons, and that washing with them is not a new idea.
The elder will be in flower for another few weeks. It is worth finding one near you and observing it, Things to note in your nature journal are: the fragrance and the exact time it reaches its peak, so you can compare to other years.