Elders

The Elderberries are coalescing for their annual meeting of the blue-haired ladies auxiliary. Blue Elderberry is their local handle, though their charter, when checked, says Sambucus caerulea. They have affiliates around the globe numbering in the 30's, some of them are badbadbad and some are regular Florence Nightingales.

These shrubs grow 6-24' tall and wide, along streams throughout the dry Palouse. The Blue Elderberry is a stooped old shrub with long saggy opposite sprouting leaves which are divided into lance-shaped, toothy leaflets. In spring, from their droopy branches bloom whitish flowers. Currently dangling, are coteries of small round bluish fruits with a waxy veil of powder blue. I refer only to the Blue Elderberries, not the red, not the black, not the yellow, not the Mexican, not the Chinese, though I'm sure these all have their own tales to tell. The blue berries of which I speak are the only edible part of this plant. The new growth is considered poisonous, so take care to extricate your berries from the stem. Some sources list the leaves as poisonous while others rave of their medicinal properties.

My experience with the blue elder entails eating them raw with my children. Huck abstains as they make him sick. The rest of us can gorge without consequence. They are apparently high in calcium, according to herbalist Susun Weed.

I dry them by picking the entire cluster and hanging them berries-down in a darkish, dry place. A paper bag with ventilation holes works well. Once dry, the berries come off easily; the paper bag catches volunteers. I sift out the tangles of stem and store the berries in glass jars in dark corners. These we use in teas and infusions throughout the winter when we have colds or the flu.

Elderberry wine (aging the aged?) is apparently a special treat of medicinal value. However wine-making in our house came to an abrupt stop after a series of explosions that turned corks into bullets and a closet into a sticky mess. This year I plan to make the famous elderberry cough syrup, which I hope will be less of a minefield than wine.

Elderberries can also be made into jams or jelly.

According to Plants for the Future (www.pfaf.org), Blue Elder roots, bark and leaves have many medicinal properties, being used in a variety of preparations for a variety of topical ailments and a few internal problems. The flowers are also edible and medicinal.

Most Native Americans ate Blue Elderberry in large quantities, both fresh and dried. The Okanagan let nature dry the fruit herself, according to Food Plants of the Interior First Peoples by Nancy J. Turner. In November, they piled bunches of nature-dried Blue Elderberries on a spread of needles at the base of a Ponderosa Pine and covered them with a thick layer of needles. Snow insulated the berries and the berries dyed the snow lavender. The Okanagan revisited the easily seen stash for snacks throughout the winter.

The wood is hollow and older branches can be used for flutes or good kindling. The name is likely from Anglo-Saxon aeld which is "to kindle," not because it is an old, wise plant, although it is. (Plants of the Southern Interior... by LonePine)

Throughout old Europe, Elders were known as "the medicine chest of the country people." According to Growing and Using the Healing Herbs by Gaea and Shandor Weiss, Elders of old warded off evil in Russia, Bohemia and Italy and witches in England. Elderberry is also used in Chinese and Japanese medicine, with varieties specific to those parts of the world.

In Wise Woman Herbal for the Pregnancy Year, Susun Weed relates a legend with global versions of a woman who lives in the Elder. She takes the shape of the tree to better heal her children. She requires respect and permission to use her healing powers. Abuse will result in poisoning.

These blue-haired little old ladies mean business. I, for one, have no intention of passing up the healing and wisdom my Elders Auxiliary intends to pass on to me.