It’s Elderflower season again, and that can only mean one thing: more great free stuff from nature. If you haven’t already grabbed a bucket and hit the hedgerows, let me take a few minutes to clue you in on Elder and what you might be missing.

Native Elder (Sambucus nigra) lives pretty much anywhere. It’s as happy growing along roadsides as it is in gardens and it’s rife in cities, parks and wasteland which makes it fantastic for urban foragers. In summer it produces flat, dinner-plate heads of delicate, fragrant, white flowers and in autumn it produces rafts of dark round, edible pavement-staining berries. It’s so common that you probably walk past it everday without giving it a second thought.

It’s been said that Elderflower defines our British summer – the season starts as it blooms across the country and fades only when the last berries have fallen. It’s also commonly believed to be completely poisonous which is probably why so many people give it a wide berth.

Truth is, the flowers and berries are not only edible but delicious. They have a unique flavour – part musk, part grape – that’s instantly familiar to anyone who’s ever drunk the cordial. In case you haven’t tried it, Elderflower cordial is about the closest thing you can get to a sweet, perfumy, white wine without actually buying a sweet, perfumy, white wine. And Mixed in with ice, water and any cheap, below-par white wine it makes one of the best summer drinks you can get.

That poison tag isn’t entirely undeserved though. Elder leaves and bark contain a cocktail of chemicals including cyanides that can make you pretty sick, so no chewing on the wood! Make sure to only use the flower heads and berries, and for safety i’d suggest cooking the berries when you use them.

The best Elderflowers are picked when they’re white and newly opened. The older creamy ones are riper and have a faint smell of cat-pee about them – not that this should put you off. That litter-basket fragrance doesn’t make it into anything you cook or brew with the flowers and we’re only after the fresh ones anyway. Pick the fresh heads and leave the creamy ones alone to finish their work so that (come autumn) we’ll have a good harvest of berries to play with .

Dodgy bark aside; chemically, Elder is pretty spectacular. It’s probably this that gave rise to the folklore that surrounds it and explains why it’s been so revered throughout history. It’s credited with both supernatural and healing powers – used over the years to ward off evil; planted to deter witches;and used to make wands and flutes to summon spirits. The fairy kingdom supposedly rate the plant highly. The fairy king and queen pass under it on midsummers eve.

So what do our science friends have to say about it?

Research shows that as well as being high in vitamin C, the berries contain powerful neuraminidase inhibiting chemicals which have been proven to ward off or lessen the symptoms of flu. (The inhibitors act by gluing up the receptors on the flu virus that it uses to enter healthy cells and belong to the same class of chemicals used in Tamiflu.) Elderberry is also credited as relieving asthma and – As if that weren’t enough – you can also boil up the leaves and spray the liquor on plants to deter carrot fly and cucumber beetle.

So apart from warding off evil, fighting flu, and beetle battling, what else can you do with it?

For a start, Elderflower is one of the quintessential tastes of summer. Use it in desserts (like elderflower and lime jellies) or in glazes (try honey, wine, mustard and elderflower on lamb). For an old english classic, try cooking the flower heads as fritters. Just dip them in pancake batter, cook till just golden and sprinkle with sugar. Alternatively, make enough cordial to last and keep summer going all year.

The cordial can be used to whip up sorbets or to add a dash of summer hedgerow to all your fruit reipes (try a splash in your apple pie filling). I’ve already mentioned using it in a spritzer (a tip I can’t recommend enough) but to show off, you can also use it to make an elderflower martini with gin, cordial, lemon zest and ice.

There’s a couple of links below for classic Elderflower cordials that i’m going to be trying out over the weekend.

So thats our flu-busting, evil-fighting, cordial producing Elder. Summer’s here! Grab your buckets and go get picking.

Elderflower cordial recipes here and here.

I’ve heard some good reviews from friends about these babies so I couldn’t resist putting in an order for a few plants to see if they really do live up to the hype.

Along with the increasing varieties of dwarf veg springing up in pots all over the country, they seem to be part of a growing trend of urban-friendly, low maintenance veggies… perfectly suited for the space-strapped city gardener. From tomatoes, to beans, to peppers, to herbs, to fruit…. armed with just a patio, a balcony, a hanging basket or a large windowsill; increasingly space really isn’t a barrier to growing your own. All of which is great news for city dwellers and tomato lovers everywhere.

Go buy some.

Tomatoes via Sutton’s (here).

I swear, we honestly didn’t use to have half the cleaning products we have nowadays and – back then – life was so much simpler for it. And no one really grow up any more grubby for the lack of options.

Which got me questioning how much we really need all the choice.

Wander through any supermarket nowadays, and you’ll confront an army of day-glow spray bottles – one unique cleaning spray for every unique thing you’ll ever own. Battalions of stain removers, glass cleaners, surface cleaners, oven cleaners… Each one puffing out its little plastic chest and boasting about its ability to do something wonderfully specific.

Need something to remove grass stains from pets? No problem.

Need to remove pet stains from grass though and you’ll probably need a different spray.

And that, in a nutshell, is my gripe with modern cleaning.

See, excelling at something specific while being crap at everything else is great if you’re a surgeon, but not if you’re a detergent.

Go back 20 or 30 years and we had more limited options. Just as any medical problem (from cuts and grazes to full blown smallpox) could be treated by dabbing it with vinegar, all we needed for cleaning was a soapy bucket of ‘detergent’ and a little elbow grease. I’m not sure the vinegar trick ever worked – which is probably why doctors rarely do it – but we were always great at getting stuff clean.

How?

Washing Soda.

Magic crystals from the depths of time that your nan used to use for everything from laundry to baking. Magic, safe, bio degradable, limescale-removing, de-greasing, water-softening, 90p-a-sack-from-pound-shop crystals that – apart from ruining aluminium – really do excel at pretty much every other task you throw at them.

Don’t confuse washing soda (or Sodium Carbonate) with caustic soda (the stuff you pour down drains that dissolves everything on contact). It’s actually a closer chemical relative to baking soda. And its fantastic stuff.

You can use a little to soften water and make your detergent go further. Or tip a cupful into your toilet to keep it clean and shiny. Its safe on clothes and plates. Its phosphate, bleach and enzyme free and is totally bio-degradable. It removes tea stains and I read somewhere that it kills greenfly – although you may want to check that one before you try it. Plant safety aside; for all i know, give it to greenfly and they may grow to the size of houses and develop a taste for human flesh.

Anyway.

Today’s tip for the day is dedicated to washing soda and to nans everywhere.

Ditch the sprays and hit the pound shops. Live clean and live simpler.

More washing-soda-goodness here and here.

And these guys have a pdf instruction leaflet available for download.

Go make your nan proud.

]]> http://backtobasicsmagazine.wordpress.com/2008/05/22/tip-for-the-day-soda-crystals/feed/ 3 hbird http://backtobasicsmagazine.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/new-uses-for-old-things-windowsill-veg-containers/ http://backtobasicsmagazine.wordpress.com/2008/05/21/new-uses-for-old-things-windowsill-veg-containers/#comments Wed, 21 May 2008 19:09:09 +0000 hbird http://backtobasicsmagazine.wordpress.com/?p=20 ]]>

I’ve introduced a few of the ready-meal tins that were cluttering up the cupboards here to chive and spring onion seeds. Now I’m going to introduce them to the windowsill and see how they all get on.

There’s more chives here if you need a bigger fix.

I even printed out labels to make the bottles look all professional. (See right).

I’ve already got homes lined up for most of this batch, but I’ll be keeping a few bottles back for summer drinking. And much as I’ll miss it glopping away in the kitchen, it’ll be good to have the demijohns back. I’ve got a hankering for plum wine and a couple of free demijohns is all the excuse I need to get brewing.

Tip for the day: Elderflower cordial is a fantastic way to perk up any cheap white wine… and make it go further. Just tip any white wine you have (the cheaper, the better) into a big jug with a good slug of elderflower cordial, water (to taste) and a couple of handfuls of ice for a perfect summer spritzer. Add a sprig of mint if you want to show off.

Perfect summer drinking on the cheap.

So the evidence is mounting… after a little rummaging on the internet it seems maybe you can grow sweetcorn in grow bags. It’s a tip that the guys at the local nursery gave me but that I wanted to research a little before I tried.

So why all the excitement about growbag sweetcorn?

Well, grow bags are about the easiest and cheapest way to grow anything – particularly if you don’t have a proper garden. And sweetcorn? Well, it’s a god amongst veg. I mean, boiled or steamed (to preserve the sweetness and flavour) with a knob of butter melted over it… you have to admit that it’s pretty special and totally summer. Unfortunately its also almost two quid for two cobs from the local supermarket.

Happily, it’s also about two quid for a dozen plants from your local nursery or garden centre. And with each plant capable of producing two or three cobs… Well, if we could cram a dozen plants into a few growbags, thats up to 36 cobs for a fiver: a saving of 30 pounds for ten minute’s work and a few square feet of yard space.

Ker-ching!

And there’s no reason why we can’t stick some salad or cut and come again rocket in the bags for added economy.

Also, if you haven’t tried fresh-cut sweetcorn, you haven’t lived. Its one of those veg that doesn’t travel as well as you think it would. As soon as you pick it, the sugars start to turn to starch and you begin to lose the flavour. The best way to eat it really is straight from the stalk. Once you try it there’s no going back. Just cut it and steam it. Or throw it freshly cut on the barbecue and seal in all that sunshine, sweetness and flavour.

So I can’t entirely vouch for this but for the sake of a few quid i’m convinced enough to try it. I’m planting out the first bags tomorrow and i’ll report back.

I think it’s doubly annoying because (being on deadline with freelance work) i’m having to crack on with the paid stuff and leave the veg alone – even though I can see them from where i’m sitting. Its a little like putting a smoker next to an ashtray and telling them that they can’t spark up. I never realised that not gardening would take will power.

dammit.

Anyway, tip for the day:

If you have any containers outdoors that get good sun and you haven’t already, grab a few strawberry plants and pop them in. As long as they get sun and water, they’ll live happily alongside flowers in hanging baskets or hang over the edge of an otherwise full container. With early, mid and late varieties available, they’ll fruit throughout the summer and – if they send out runners – snip the baby plants off once they’re established and you’ll have free strawberry plants to plant out or give away to friends.

If you feel like taking on a quick project, there’s a step-by-step on growing strawberries in hanging baskets here: http://www.gardenersworld.com/plants/pots-containers/strawberry-basket/

But wine aint all about grapes.

Thing is, you can make wine from just about anything, and if you make it from stuff we Brits excel at, then our wines can totally hold their own.

I discovered this recently in our local wine shop. They have a whole range of commercially produced local wines made using traditionally British recipes, and they’re incredible. Mainly because they don’t taste of ‘wine’.

See, these days all our wines are based on grapes – and an increasingly small variety of them. Check the shelves if you don’t believe me. Try and find a good Muscadet amongst the Chardonnays and Pinot Grigios in your local supermarket. Then try and find something non-grape. Then tell me we’re not missing a trick.

If you want to try something thats a bit off the beaten path and tastes like what its made from, i’m going to recommend you try these guys. The plum wine is genius. Rich, plummy, smooth, fruity and summer. Feeling brave? Try the sloe. Or try the elderflower for a fix of summer hedgerows. Buy them online or badger your local winestore to start stocking them.

I say, reclaim wine. Ditch the grape and go native.

Choose summer. Choose Hedgerow.

Choose British.

Whenever I mention the idea of growing or making your own stuff I invariably get one of two responses: either utter derision or insane approval. The approval usually comes bundled with that knowing smile you only get from someone who’s already caught the bug. The derision generally comes from people with ‘proper’ jobs and time management skills.

Its like as a society, we’ve gotten so used to shopping as a means of fulfilling all our needs that somewhere along the way we forgot the joy of making things – except for a secret society of jam makers and salad growers and shed owners who meet in the shadows and keep the flame burning. And smile knowingly at each other. If you ever grew salad successfully on your windowsill, you’re one of us. We live in the twilight but come the revolution we’ll shine.And we’ll bring our own jam. And it’ll taste better than the stuff from supermarkets. You’ll be able to taste the fruit in it.

At the risk of sounding like a died-in-the-wool hippy, theres a point here and its kind of important… hear me out on this one?

Remember when you were a kid and you’d take tissue paper and glue and glitter and dirt and make crappy mother’s day cards that you spent more minutes admiring than your mum (god bless her) could ever muster? Remember lego? Building houses from an impossible rainbow assortment of bricks and working out all the layers and navigating the myriad options and working out how to make it look awesome? Even without enough yellow to reach the roof? Remember wanting to keep that house forever but needing the bricks for a spaceship?

That, more than anything, is the buzz that keeps people tending allotments or making chutney. Thats the missing piece of the puzzle that got lost behind the sofa as we all grew up. And thats what the new wave of self-sufficiency nuts is discovering. There’s a joy to exploring and playing and doing it yourself that you don’t get from shopping. Its creativity, it’s building, and making and it totally rocks.

I never quite got it until I discovered gardening. That was my epiphany.

I’d spent years working long hours on not bad money, and when I had one of those days when I needed cheering up, I’d swing by the shops on the way home and buy something. Maybe a pair of trainers, a radio… some towels… a death ray. The thing is its not important what I bought… it all went on card. I loved it for 20 minutes then it became something that took up space indoors. So I amassed stuff and invested in cupboards.

Then one day I re-discovered plants.

I was at a market and got conned into buying a tray of rudbeckia by an old lady with one of those wide, knowing, jam-making, shed-owning, smiles. Back home – armed only with a dessert spoon, grim determination and not an ounce of gardening skills I found some dirt and planted them up. Then tried to watch tv.

Things is I kept wanting to check on them. Were they ok? Did they need water? Had they wandered off? Turned to crime? I couldn’t leave the house in the mornings without checking them and I found myself sneaking outdoors in the evenings to keep an eye on them. Then they started flowering. And I kinda moved out into the yard for a while.

Thing is, you get more blasé about this stuff as you get into it but that first time you make something, or grow something, you get a buzz that you can’t buy from shops and you can get lost in it. You get that pride and excitement and you’re like a kid again. And its great. And thats the big important missing thing we lost behind the sofa as we grew up. It’s why we still have farmers markets and home made pickles. And rubbish jam, and hedgerow wines, and garden-sheds, and Trevor Bayliss. And probably why we invented computers and radar. Its fun. It’s exploring. And for the sake of a few minutes, it’s what you might be missing out on.

That was my point.

Don’t belive me? Got a spare clove of garlic?

Plant it.

Go on. Find somewhere you pass every day. Bury it so the top’s about half an inch below the soil. Cover it over. Try and forget about it.

I dare ya.

I mean if i’m wrong, what have you got to lose?

Right?

But if i’m right, you’re one of us now. And you’ll love it.

Available from Suttons.