Elderberry I

Everybody has seen elderberry, Sambuca something-or-otherus, they are ubiquitous and widely considered a weed. Probably because they grow remarkably fast and are prolific producers of hundreds of tiny purple berries that attract bugs and taste pretty awful. I undertook to eradicate them here at Higher Ground and fortunately, it was a failed project.

As it turns out, elderberry is an inexpensive replacement for Walgreens. Seriously. All parts of the plant are useful for something, and in our experience, highly effective, at least to date; being rather indolent there are lots of things left untried.

The most valuable property seems to be its activity as an immunomodulater; it's an amazing antiviral, and a rather good antihistamine. I personally discovered this rather serendipitously with a piece of toast, in a successful bid to avoid a trip to the ED (recall indolence here) It's been widely confirmed now, by numerous users.

So here's some pictures. The flowers are in late spring (that would be Hot); the berries are ripe in late summer (Incredibly Hot). During Not Quite As Hot, they're mostly dead sticks. The last picture is Pokeweed; it's absolutely not the same stuff. It's apparently delicious, once it's been boiled three times and then fried in bacon grease; unboiled/unfried it's poisonous so be careful to Not Pick Poke.