Good Food Good condition - Elderflower

"Healthy Food For Women"

Hi everyone, today I have a great summer drink rich in Antioxidants which easily are good for you, yes its the base elderflower. The flowers are now in season and plentiful, and it is easily easy to harvest and furnish yourself.

"Healthy Diet Foods":

The elderflower has been well known straight through the centuries for its high vitamin C content, antioxidant and curative properties, and because of this is today one of the top selling natural summer cordials.

Healthy Food For Women

"Healthy Food For Women"

Drinking a glass of cordial daily is very refreshing and will help to improve your health, and it is not just the flowers that are good for you but also the berries when made into wine have equal beneficial properties.

Good Food Good condition - Elderflower

We are all well aware now just how important anti oxidants and vitamin C are, and I do not mean only the ladies mental about their skin and premature aging, but then maybe that is why straight through the ages women have all the time made and drank elderflower cordials and tea ritually, and is a staple stock of the Women's fabricate along with jams.

Antioxidants are needed to help reduce the output of 'free radicals' (highly re-active and unstable molecules which contain atoms with unpaired electrons) in the body, high fat diets attribute to 'free radicals', but they are also produced simply and especially in people who practice heavily, attacking cells important to long term damage and a higher risk of cancer.

Studies have shown that taking antioxidants such as vitamin C before eating high fat foods, reduces the damage greatly to the arteries.

The elderflower is well in bloom now and can be found in most hedgerows and roadsides, scrubland and gardens alike, and to many gardeners is a nuisance as it grows practically in any place in a very short time to a requisite size.

The elder has acquired the nickname of 'Nature's rehabilitation Chest', as its curative properties have been used for a very wide and various range of problems from Rheumatism, hay fever, coughs and colds, asthma and influenza.

The elderflower is only in bloom for about six weeks, from the end of May to the beginning of July, but it is best picked now while the flowers are fresh and white and before they turn creamy brown.

I remember making this with my grandma every year, from collecting the flowers and berries to all the smells connected with this. I still have the hand written formula of this and others by grandma, although I think some of these recipes are probably illegal to make at home now, like the marrow rum, I will have to check up on this at a later date. Ted is intrigued as to why you have to hang the marrow in a stocking for this recipe, men!

The formula to make 1.5 litres of Elderflower cordial is below, which you dilute to taste, is easy and inexpensive, and is great served with fizzy water and ice. Excellent for the summer.

Ingredients you need - 20 heads of elderflower, 1.8kg granulated sugar, 1.2 litres of water, 2 lemons and 75g citric acid. Preparing time takes 20 minutes, plus overnight infusing and 5 minutes cooking. Method. Shake the flowers to expel any insects and place in large bowl.

Put sugar in pan with water and bring to boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Pare zest off lemons in wide strips and place in bowl with elderflower. Slice lemons discarding ends and add slices to bowl. Pour over boiling syrup and stir in citric acid. Cover with cloth and leave for 24 hours at room temperature. The next day strain cordial straight through a muslin (or a new boil washed J cloth or similar) and pour into fully cleaned plastic or glass bottles with screw on lids, and that is it.

There, that is not that difficult is it, and it tastes so good served with a sprig of mint and a slice of strawberry with fizzy water and ice, friends will not believe you have made it yourself.

The elder is also used as a natural organery insecticide, by crushing up and bruising the foul smelling leaves you can leave them colse to young plants to deter aphids and caterpillars. Obviously as they dry out and the smell disappears they need to be replaced.

Farmers used to hang bunches of elderflower above their horses before insecticides were used to rid flies, and dairy farmers used it as they idea it had properties to stop the milk from turning sour. people used to wear a small sprig to keep midges away.

The elder has been closely entwined with pagans straight through the years to summon spirits, with twigs woven into head-dresses to enable the wearer to see spirits and undo evil spells! The mind boggles.

On the Isle of Man, every cottage has an elder growing surface its front door to ward off witches even to this day. In other parts of the country, people would never burn elder wood as it was said a member of the house would die. It was truly a revered plant.

The great thing about elderflower is that it tastes delicious, is extremely refreshing and a good supplier of vitamin C - an antioxidant, so why not try making your own or buy a good reputable man-made cordial or juice and start getting the benefits for your good health now.

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