I love this time of year. Lion’s Gate..... When the Sun moves into the sign of Leo, and for a time rises with the Dog Star Sirius. What can I say I’m an ancient Egyptian, among other things.
I actually have a bush. Well this is embarrassing. Second year in a row it’s happened, too. It was LOADED with blossoms this spring. I picked and picked -- got a whole gallon jar full and enough to tincture. I could have picked more.
So I remembered last year -- it had been loaded with blossoms and then they all dried up. They didn’t make it to maturity as in other years.
I don’t recall what I was doing for watering that area when the bush was small, or not producing, or when I wasn’t picking them for whatever reason. I know it has produced. But now the last years when I’ve really wanted a good crop, I’ve gotten nothing -- as again, it dried up before I realized.
This is unthinkable to me, the bush faces my living room window, I can see it from the house. I just didn’t think it would require water so soon. And I had watered it once already. They are supposed to go totally without water. I see them growing out in the countryside. Obviously they’ve found a moist-ish spot if they are making it under conditions of no water.
Well, thankfully I have a friend who has them. The husband of one of my co-workers drove me out there today and I picked somewhat of a bagful. There weren’t many in reach on his monster tree either. Birds had gotten some, and many weren’t ready. Oh well I have enough. I still have tincture from last year.
What will be done with it this year?
Oh, fun fun experimental products based on several years’ worth of experimenting with good results. There will be an Elderberry, Elder Flower, Horehound and Boneset tincture blend for virus accompanied by fever symptoms, as in the recent MERS virus circulating. They say it might be air born, so that one could move around quite a bit.
There will also be some kind of acetum featuring elderberry, garlic, turkey tail mushrooms and other interesting savory ingredients for boosting the immune system. As mentioned I already made and pressed out a pure Elder Flower tincture in Everclear, which hopefully will be good for seasonal allergy relief as well as colds and flu.
While I’m at it I (or we) better make an Elderberry glycerite. Some of these things will be made in the company of my lovely herb friend ladies at our next workshop and some I will pre-make in order to decant and try at the workshop. Samples to take home are always a feature of things we decant. It’s a kick, and then I get the feedback.
With the glycerite it might be better to tincture the berries while they still have a slight bit of moisture in them, so we’ll decant it later in class. Everyone will love that. Vegetable Glycerin is sweet so that should be quite interesting!
I’m also looking to dry as many as possible for different uses -- tea, maybe trying it in a candy later this winter. Herbalism is just so darn interesting, efficacious, fun and fantastic, I’m hooked!!
So if you’re looking to work with one of THE BEST anti-virals the plant world has to offer, keep on top of Elderberry’s fruiting cycle. These things come and go, it’s part of the challenge and the wonderfulness of working with the seasons.
Black Elderberry: Natural Cold and Flu Treatment
Elderberry Extract Outperforms Medication By Inhibiting Growth of Pathogenic Bacteria By Up To 99 Percent
Lion’s Gate Blessings
PS: I nearly grinned my ears off at Soren Dreier’s report
Tales from the Morph ii
that those having power animals are starting to show up interdimensionally as such -- Arrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhf!
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