North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Heron Breen <breen@fedcoseeds.com>]

>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/