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How to make sugar free elderberry 'syrup'

30/10/2012

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Dutch: Vlierbessen - French: Baies de sureau - German: Holunderbeeren

We all dealt with our first cold and flu symptoms  here at home, and I thought it would be a nice occasion for sharing some of our home made recipes. Elderberries make a great wild edible, but they are even more than  that: they are true medicine.

Elderberries (the fruits of Sambucus nigra) are the number one ally in beating viruses like flu and common colds. This is a must have (I'd rather say must make) wild medicine to have around for the winter to come. Traditionally, it is turned into a syrup. But neither of us has sweet tooth at home (like my daughter, who prefers olives over sweet things) and we like to avoid sugar as much as we can for health reasons as well. Here's an alternative: elderberry ice cubes.
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First, pick your berries. Choose the really ripe ones.
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Then, remove the berries from the stems. Any green ones should be discarded. We like to do this with our hands, but if you want to avoid staining your hands, a fork may come in handy.
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See those stains? Did you know the berries make a good dye for fabric and hair?
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Then, boil the berries and let simmer for a while. I start on a low fire, so that I don't need to add any water. Soon you'll see the berries bursting open and release their juice.
This step is essential! Elderberries contain a cyanide-producing glycoside, which is toxic to humans, and the heat destroys this.

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Pour into a cheesecloth.
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And get all the goodness out.
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Here's the glorious juice!
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And pour into ice cube trays. Put in your freezer and take one out whenever you feel your immune system needs some support. Add to a glass of water, your favorite juice (or wine, or cava).
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Don't throw away the leftover pulp! Put it in a glass jar, add some vinegar, let steep for six weeks, strain, and tadaaaah! Elderberry vinegar. Great on salads, but we also like to add a tablespoon of this vinegar with a tablespoon of honey to a glass of water. This makes a super healthy soda alternative that boosts your immune system. To your health!
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Connection with nature: a forager's perspective

25/10/2012

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Foraging is so much more than harvesting edible wild plant parts. It's about a deeper connection to nature. That connection is the core of all of our lives. You may feel disconnected at times, but you aren't really. You are nature.
To be alive, we need to breathe. I don't know where you got your oxygen lately, but I get it from plants. From an ongoing dance of nature. Plants are literally giving us that what we need in order to define ourselves as being alive.


For those of you who want to reconnect to nature, foraging is a great tool. It will provide you with a lot of opportunities for celebrating that ancient relationship we have with the plant world. Foraging will not only result in wild foods, it's an ongoing process that will give you moments you could not have expected or anticipated. It's in these moments that the magic happens.

We all know these feelings from other contexts as well. What few people know of me, is that I have an avid love for overtone singing. It's like a ritual, warming up our voices, getting in the right state of mind and starting to sing our sounds, eagerly awaiting until it happens: the moment the overtones come in.
They arrive, like an invited and awaited guest, and are welcomed. Suddenlty this is are more than just people using their voices, these are sounds that clash, sounds that mate, sounds that dance in the space that is used. They lift the whole singing to a next level. I know some universities are doing scientific research on singing, sounds and what exactly these do with our bodies, and I'm sure they could give the chemical details on what actually happens there, but I'm decribing here how it feels to me. It's the moment everything falls in its place and you are able to be totally in the here and now. When you are the moment.


The same applies to foraging. And that's why I love to forage on my own, or select my companions very carefully. There's this moment when you truly connect to the plant, understand the plant, share time and space with the plant. No exceptional skills needed, just the ability to go into that space of opening up your senses and becoming the experience.

I recently read a beautiful passage about someone describing this in a book on the Sudbury Valley School, in which one of the staff members describes how we learn all the time, organically, in all directions. She explains how she had an amazing experience with a beech tree.
She had been working at that place for 18 years, saw the colors of the beech leaves in autumn, the structure of the tree in winter time, the new growth in spring and the luscious deep green leaves in summer. She saw generations of kids climbing that tree, she even saw some kids climbing all the way to the top, sitting there for hours.
But then, one of the kids wanted her to climb with her, which she had never done before. This girl showed her step by step how to get higher and higher, and for the first time in her life, she actually climbed the tree.
And then, she saw the tree. She experienced he tree. She was moved deeply, and tells how she can hardly describe into words the respect, honour and protection she feels.


This is why I love foraging. I do not only come home with wild edible greens or seeds or fruits, I come home with stories, with dreams, with inspiration, with a different viewpoint, with a feeling of being part of a greater all, with an experience. It's always fruitful, it's always nourishing, it's always valuable and good.

May it be as good for you too!
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Autumn foraging: stinging nettle seeds are edible as well

22/10/2012

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Dutch: Grote Brandnetel - French: Ortie Grande - German: Große Brennessel

Most of you know already about stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) leaf being edible. In autumn however, most stinging nettle (also known as common nettle) plants are in seed. Join me on my foraging journey and hear me explain how you can use these wild seeds as food. Urtica urens can be used the same way.
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Wild edible plants: is burdock edible?

11/10/2012

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-Arctium lappa-
English: Greater Burdock, Edible Burdock, Lappa, Beggar's Buttons
Dutch: Grote Klis, Grote Klit
French: Grande Bardane, Oreille de Géant (= a giant's ear!)
German: Große Klette

Foraging in autumn: what wild plants are edible? Greater burdock (Arctium lappa) is a highly nutritious edible weed and is easy to identify. The seeds stick to animal's furs and people's clothes and that's why I often refer to it as the velcro plant. The seeds can be sprouted, and I use the leaves to wrap flowers in. This way they keep fresh for a longer time. The root is probably the best known part, it is sold in Japanese stores as gobo and makes a good root vegetable. 
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Wild edible berries: meet dewberry!

9/10/2012

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Dutch: Dauwbraam
French: Ronce bleue, Ronce des champs
German: Kratzbeere, Bereifte Brombeere, Bockbeere, Kroatzbeere, Ackerbeere


Every autumn I go foraging for numerous edible wild berries. One of my favorite species is dewberry (Rubus caesius). The leaves, that look pretty much like 'regular' blackberry, are edible when they are young. I pick them in springtime. But today I'm after the berries. Learn how to identify dewberry and how you can eat it.

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Rose hips: free vitamin C - and how to make itching powder :)

3/10/2012

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In this video I am introducing you to another wild edible fruit: rosehips. You'll learn how to identify and harvest, the health benefits, and how to use the different varieties. Caution is needed though, as this fruit also has another side...
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Bitter wild edibles: Mugwort for health

2/10/2012

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One of the abundant plants we saw on the Wild Weed Walk last Sunday, was mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris). In many culinary cultures (like Japanese cuisine) this plant gets the place it deserves, but in many others it's hardly known. Let me tell you how to identify this edible weed, also known as cronewort, and why it is vital to eat it.
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Copyright © www.wildplantforager.com 
Disclaimer: Any identification or usage of plants is your own responsibility.
Make sure to identify properly, use the right plant parts, pick from a safe place and use common sense.
Photos used under Creative Commons from Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, jacme31, Kent Wang, Dendroica cerulea, Gilgongo, wallygrom, glasseyes view, foxypar4, Sarah Cairncross, Khairil Zhafri, perpetualplum, Silversyrpher, Deanster1983, dichohecho, Rebecca-Lee, blumenbiene, Andrew Stawarz, Eran Finkle, K.Hurley, jenny downing, nociveglia, My Daily Sublime, Scarygami, blumenbiene, lilyrhoads, Albertas Agejevas, Jeroen Kransen, Dendroica cerulea, ~Brenda-Starr~, andrew_j_w, Shandchem, weisserstier, Wendell Smith, martinroell, Lennix3, treehouse1977, Steve Slater (Wildlife Encounters), anemoneprojectors (through the backlog), Jasmine&Roses, schaefer_rudolf, Peter aka anemoneprojectors - camera busted!, markpeate, Nuuuuuuuuuuul, Nuuuuuuuuuuul, Håkan Dahlström, John Tann, C_Baltrusch, jenny downing, Stéfan, Madzik, anemoneprojectors (through the backlog), markpeate, graibeard, Daniel Milford Flathagen, Morgaine, D.Eickhoff