Could this be the greatest invention ever
imagine all the plants ( and weeds) in your garden, having a bar code
Is this weed, or not a weed
Just scan the plant to find out
We planted a couple of Foxgloves and a Buddleia this weekend. The Foxgloves are now known as "Shrek's ears".
Now we can look forward to lots of butterflies and bees as they continue to flower.
Could this be the greatest invention ever
imagine all the plants ( and weeds) in your garden, having a bar code
Is this weed, or not a weed
Just scan the plant to find out
and for the next identification quiz...
We have a small tree in the garden that produces tiny white flowers in spring and bunches of black berries in summer.
I think it's just an overgrown weed, but DT likes it.
As we're keeping it, I'd like to know what it is. Can anyone help please?
Elderflower / elderberry?
Not that I'm much help in the garden, but they look like blackcurrents to me
"If you rebel against high heels, take care to do so in a very smart hat.'' George Bernard Shaw
Definitely Elder.
You can use the flowers in the summer to make Elderflower Champagne, batter and make into fritters or just eat the tiny little white flowers raw. And (if you don't eat all the flowers in the summer) you can use the berry's to make wine - or just leave ithe flowers and the berry's to feed the insects and birds.
You beat me to it!
There are plenty of things to do with the berries. Wine is a long-winded operation and you might not always get something that palatable after the 9-12 months it takes to make it. You can also make cordials and syrups or use them to flavour alcohol (similar to Sloe Gin). I don't think they'd be that nice in puddings - try eating one or two when they're completely ripe and see what you think of the flavour.
I think they're supposed to be rich in Vit C so good for combatting colds. I'm sure Google will come up with plenty of recipes - if you want a good book there's one called Wild Food by Roger Phillips, it's got lots of recipes and lots of great pictures.
Here are a couple of recipes - mainly the flowers seem to dominate the recipes.
BBC list for Elderflower recipes (3 pages long)
Mulled wine recipe (from the Beeb again)
WT
I make elderflower cordial in the summer and this year we're going to try and use the elderberries for either jam or alcohol (or both). We made raspberry vodka a couple years back so we're going to add several other vodka varieties this time round (eldeberry, sloe, blackberry)
I remember my mother making elderberry cordial, which was delicious, so that may be worth looking into.
While I'm on here, does anyone have any experience of growing tayberries?
I planted one plant earlier this year, and info on care, pruning etc seems to be pretty scarce.
Thanks.
Whilst trawling the internet for recipes...
"It's really important only to pick ripe (purple-black) elderberries. You can tell they're ripe because the fruits will be hanging downwards and plump, rather than being above the branch and hard.
Avoid green and green-purple berries as these are unripe and contain traces of cyanide, which can cause vomiting and diarrhoea... In some sensitive people, even ripe fruit will do this. However, cooking removes this problem."
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