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["Brungardt, Sam" <Sam.Brungardt@state.mn.us>]

My dictionary defines "blow" as (1) A mass of blossoms: peach blow. (2)
The state of blossoming. (3) To bloom or cause to bloom.  Itr is from
the Middle English "blowen", to bloom. -- Sam 

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Heron Breen
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 11:50 AM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Blow flower


>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.) 
>
>
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