Monday, June 06, 2022

Red and green

Red elderberries are quick to ripen from creamy flowers to green berries to red, and then they're gone, gobbled down by birds and bears and squirrels. This week they're at the green stage. I picked a stem to look at more closely; high on the branches, they're inconspicuous.

The dashboard of my car makes a good backdrop. The markers are the colour of the berries when they're ripe.

The berries are edible, cooked. Not raw, at least for humans, and the rest of the plant is toxic. Even cooked, they're seedy, so they're best strained out to make jelly.

Our coastal elderberries are red; in the interior, they are black, and blue ones sometimes show up farther south. The reds and the blacks share the same species, Sambucus racemosa, so the local red ones have to extend the species name: Sambucus racemosa ssp. pubens var. arborescens.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
El saúco rojo, Sambucus racemosa, pasa de flores cremosas a frutillas verdes, volviéndose rojos muy pronto, y en poco tiempo desaparecen, engullidas por los pájaros, los osos, las ardillas. Esta semana están verdes. Corté una rama para mirarla más de cerca.

Foto bayas verdes de saúco rojo. El tablero de mi coche sirve de contraste.

Las bayas son comestibles, siempre que estén bien cocidas. Crudas, no se deben comer, por lo menos en lo que respeta a los humanos. Todo lo demás de la planta es tóxica. Aun cocidas, tienen muchas semillas, pero el jugo hace una buena jalea.

Las bayas de los saúcos de nuestras costas son rojas. En el interior de la provincia son negras o moradas. También existen las bayas azules, un poco más al sur. Tanto las rojas como las negras son de la misma especie, lo que requiere que nuestra variedad lleve un nombre científico extendido: Sambucus racemosa ssp. pudens var. arborescens. 

3 comments:

  1. Back in the hippie days, a friend in London (UK) used to make all kinds of wine. A lot of it was ghastly, but he did a lovely elderberry. He used to give the local vicar a bottle for communion!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "A lot of it was ghastly, ..." I had to laugh! I remember people making dandelion wine. (I never tried any.)

      Delete
  2. As a rule, I prefer the grape. Especially having worked in a vineyard!

    ReplyDelete

I'm having to moderate all comments because Blogger seems to have a problem notifying me. Sorry about that. I will review them several times daily, though, until this issue is fixed.

Also, I have word verification on, because I found out that not only do I get spam without it, but it gets passed on to anyone commenting in that thread. Not cool!

Powered By Blogger