This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Black Lace - safe to drink?
Naomi Ziewe Palmer
Posts: 2
in Fruit & veg
Hello
We have the most enormous Black Lace Elderberry bush and at the moment it is heaving with berries. I know Elderflower cordials/wines etc are made from the ordinary green variety that grow everywhere, but is it safe to make a cordial or wine out of the berries of the Black Lace variety? It seems a shame not to use them, but perhaps there is a reason why the berries don't get gobbled up immediately by birds... thank you !
0
Posts
Yes it's perfectly edible - this might reassure you
http://www.garden.org/ediblelandscaping/?page=july_elderberry .
I think that this year the birds are slow to eat the berries on the hedgerows as the weather is still so warm and they don't need as much food to produce energy to keep them warm, and also there is such a prolific harvest of berries this autumn that they're spoilt for choice
Our garden birds aren't even eating sunflower seeds at the moment
They're just not hungry yet.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.