Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Blow flower

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Heron Breen <breen@fedcoseeds.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Blow flower
  • Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 11:49:47 -0600

>From personal herbal use and historical application, the elder flowers are
>used in
tea as fever reducers and in tincture as a gentlier substitute for echinacea
root.
Elder "blow" as I've known it refers to the stage of a flower when a slight
air or
branch movement will cause the petals to fall. It is at this time that the
flowers
are the easiest to gather for food, medicine, etc. Petal-fall is what most of
use
to refer to this as. Elder flowers reach "blow" stage depending on
sunlight/shade
and higher branches release before lower branches. So there is actually a
"season"
for about 3 weeks where elder flowers can be harvested. Harvesting at blow
ensures
a crop of berries that fall as the ovary itself is left intact on the plant.
sincerely,
Heron Breen
zone 4, Maine

On Fri Dec 16 9:17 , Doc Lisenby <longdistshtr@shtc.net> sent:

>In a message dated 12/15/2005 1:47:46 PM US Eastern Standard Time,
>longdistshtr@shtc.net writes:
>
>
>We used to bread and fry the elderberry "blow" (flowers)
>
>
>Well that is a new one on me. What is a blow (flower)? As opposed to a
>normal flower? Local term?
>
>Jerry
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
>Sorry Jerry, but we retained some of the Old English down here while the
>trend at one time was to switch the official American language to German.
>Ironically "blow" was akin to the Old High German verb,"bluoen" meaning "to
>blossom". Why elder blow (elder blossom) hung on, is beyond my
>comprehension. It could be because an elder, especially Sambucus nigra, may
>be referred to as a bourtree (bower tree). The blossoms were claimed to
>have medicinal properties and these attributes may have previously exceeded
>the berries importance as a dye or food. Over time, elder became elderberry
>to describe the plant.
>Incidentally, the bark, leaves, shoots and roots are claimed to contain
>cyanogenic glycosides which are poisonous and shouldn't be ingested.
>So, to answer your question; "blow" means "blossom"/"flower"/"bloom".
>Doc Lisenby Zone 7/8 (So. Car.)
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>nafex mailing list
>nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
>
>Reproduction of list messages or archives is not allowed.
>This includes distribution on other email lists or reproduction on web sites.
>Permission to reproduce is NEVER granted, so don't claim you have permission!
>
>Posts from email addresses that are not subscribed are discarded.
>No exceptions.
>----
>To subscribe or unsubscribe, go to the bottom of this page (also can be used
>to
change other email options):
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
>
>File attachments are NOT stripped by this list.
>TAKE STEPS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM COMPUTER VIRUSES!
>Please do not send binary files.
>Use plain text ONLY in emails!
>
>NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page