Tag: Guelder Rose

Guelder rose shrub drink

For ages, I have been experimenting with making wild shrubs. A shrub is a cider vinegar drink popular in the 1920s during the prohibition period in the USA.

However, its history goes back into the mists of time. In the 15th century, a shrub was a medicinal drink, which is why I am keen to grow my repertoire.

Why take isolated supplements when we can drink delicious herbal elixirs like shrubs.

The word comes from the Arabic ‘sharaba‘ meaning ‘to drink’. And although modern shrubs usually contain alcohol, with their roots in Persia and Muslim culture I am more interested in crafting non-alcoholic shrubs.

Usually, shrubs include a ton of white or brown sugar, so for this guelder rose shrub I used black raisins.

I recently taste-tested this recipe on over 100 people who have come on various foraging courses and it was unanimously given a 9 out of 10 ratings in excellence. So try it. I hope you like it.

Ingredients

500g fresh guelder rose berries (Viburnum opulus)
400g black raisins
1 litre of cold water
raw cider vinegar

Instructions

Freeze the berries, then take out and pull off the stalks into a saucepan.
Add raisins and water and bring to a boil. Turn down low and simmer for 60 minutes then use a potato masher at the end to crush the mixture.
Cool for an hour then strain through a jelly bag overnight.
When completely cold for every 100ml of liquid add 25ml of cider vinegar.
Bottle and store in a cool place.
Use 20ml (or more) of the guelder rose shrub concentrate and dilute with water (still or sparkling). Or ‘neck’ for a delicious mineral and nutrition-packed herbal shot.

Guelder Rose (Crampbark)

Home > Plants > Guelder rose

Guelder rose is traditionally used to treat cramp, hence the plant’s common names ‘crampbark’ or ‘crampbush’.

Scientific name

Viburnum opulus

Family

Viburnaceae

Botanical description

The plant bears fertile flowers that are pinkish-white in the bud and produce red, glossy drupes, while the sterile outer flowers are white, large and plate-like. The stem is slender and the leaves are divided into three or five broad angular lobes, sometimes toothed and turning purple in autumn.

Status

Perennial. Native.

Habitat and distribution

It prefers hedgerows, copses, scrubs, woodland edges, riverbanks, and lakeshores. Native to Britain, Ireland, Europe, Russia-Asia; extending even into Arctic regions; naturalised in America.

Guelder rose distribution map

Parts used for food

Fruit. Best picked after a frost but freezing will achieve the same thing as it breaks the cell walls and sweetens the fruit.

Harvest time

A deciduous shrub, flowering in midsummer with fruits appearing in late summer.

Food uses of guelder rose

Can be used as a replacement to shop bought cranberries.

The fruits have been eaten in traditional dishes in parts of Europe and in Russia. In Russia, the fruits were eaten fresh, added to porridge, baked, made into jams, jellies, marmalades, pastes, mousse, pie fillings, vinegar and condiments.

The fruits were also used as a substitute for tea or coffee.

Guelder rose recipes

Herbal medicine uses of guelder rose

The bark of guelder rose is antispasmodic and sedative. It has been used by women to calm menstrual cramps for hundreds of years, but there are no clinical trials about its use.

The bark has been used to treat very painful menstrual flows (such as dysmenorrhoea), endometriosis (a painful condition when pieces of the endometrium grow outside the uterus in the pelvis or abdominal wall), or fibroids.

The plant chemistry contains viopudial, a compound that relaxes smooth muscle and lowers blood pressure.

While the plant has had many other uses in herbal medicine, its primary use is as a muscle relaxant. To this end, the bark can also be used to relieve hiccups, and pain and spasms in muscles, stomach and intestines.

Other uses

The guelder rose is often grown in gardens as an ornamental plant. In Ireland, the variety that features large, white, sterile flowers, ‘Snowball Tree’, is particularly popular.

Safety note

Some sources suggest that guelder rose is toxic, particularly when the berries are eaten in excess, causing stomach upsets or worse – symptoms of poisoning.

However, there is no conclusive opinion and little data on the plant’s toxicity. Seek medical advice before use. The herb is best avoided during pregnancy and when breastfeeding.

References

Lang, D. C. (1987) The complete book of British berries. London: Threshold Books.

Paine, A. (2006) The healing power of Celtic plants: their history, their use, and the scientific evidence that they work. Winchester: O Books.

Shikov, A. N. et al. (2017) Traditional and current food use of wild plants listed in the Russian pharmacopoeia. Frontiers in Pharmacology. [Online] 8841.

Usher, G. (1974) A dictionary of plants used by man. London: Constable.

Wyse Jackson, P. (2013) Ireland’s generous nature: the past and present uses of wild plants in Ireland. St. Louis: Missouri Botanical Garden Press.

This divine wild jelly is an absolute must

Yesterday I told you about Guelder rose (Viburnum opulus), and my desire to make it into a jelly.

Well last night I finished the recipe.

As the jars where cooling down, I wondered whether I would simply end up with a syrup rather than a jelly.

Then this morning when I pottered into the kitchen, it was to my delight that said jelly had not only set, but it was also a delightful pinkish colour.

Slicing off a square piece of rye bread, and popping it into my square toaster, I waited for it to ‘toast’, while at the same time shaving off lashings of delicious creamy butter and prodding the opened jar of Guelder rose jelly.

Boing, boing… prod… boing…

It had certainly seemed to set well.

As an aside, when it comes to dairy products I always buy the best quality I can afford, and always organic.

Someone once said that a block of non-organic butter is the equivalent of eating 3 months worth of pesticide sprayed vegetables.

That’s most probably a wee bit of an exaggeration, but it certainly puts the point over in quite a graphic way.

A recent article in Prevention magazine states “… the fat in dairy products poses a high risk for contamination by pesticides. Animals concentrate pesticides and chemicals in their milk and meat. Growth hormones and antibiotics are also serious concerns and are invariably found in commercial milk, cheese, and butter.”

=== Sound of toaster popping up ===

As I slathered the butter onto the toast, and smeared the first of the jelly on top. I paused for a moment, smelling the aroma rising from this exquisite combination.

Then… crunch.

“Mmmppfffpphhh… gwoood.” I muttered.

As you can hopefully tell, I was having a bit of a ‘gluttony moment’.

Boy was that one fine piece of toast, and everything else aside it was the heavenly taste of the Guelder rose jelly that made the experience quite simply divine!

I don’t normally big up my recipes, but this one is now in my Top 3 of Robin’s favourites… I hope you’ll agree to.

You can grab the Guelder rose recipe here.

Happy foraging, and I hope you manage to find some Guelder locally, because it will be well worth your time.

Guelder rose jelly

Home > Plants > Guelder rose

This Guelder rose (Viburnum opulus) jelly recipe is quite simply divine. The plant is deciduous, and usually found in hedgerows, scrub and woodlands. It favours damp places and can be found along streams, but it also has the ability to thrive in quite dry spaces too.

Tasting the raw berries (which are mildly toxic if consumed in too great a quantity) will most likely result in much spitting, and verbal exclamations, as it is very bitter… but the bitterness goes when it is prepared into a jelly.

I joke that Guelder rose jelly makes the kitchen stink of old socks during preparation, but that rather off putting image is completely negated once you slather it all over some lovely hot buttered toast, or use it with game and other cooked meats.

So give this Guelder rose jelly recipe a try… I really don’t think you will be disappointed!

Ingredients

800g Guelder rose fruits (make sure you pick them soft)
2 peeled oranges (chopped)
12 crab apples (chopped)
500ml of cold water
Sugar

Instructions

Put the Guelder rose fruits, oranges, crab apples and water into a heavy bottomed pan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes, using a potato masher to occasionally mash the mixture.
Strain over night or for 12 hours by pouring the mixture through a muslin cloth or jelly bag. Do not squeeze the pulp as this will result in a cloudy jelly.
Next measure out the liquid, and for every 500ml, add 500g of sugar. You can use white or brown sugar. For this recipe I used brown granulated sugar.
Heat the sugar mixture stirring continuously until the sugar has melted, and allow it to come to a gentle simmer.
Simmer for between 15-20 minutes, or until the liquid has reached setting point. Setting point is when you can put a little bit of the juice on a plate. Now push your finger through the juice. If the juice doesn’t automatically fall back into itself, and stays at the point you pushed it to, then it’s ready. IMPORTANT: Make sure you don’t over simmer the juice as you might end up with toffee!
Wash your jars and lids with hot soapy water, then sterlise them by placing wet into a 120C oven until they are dry.
Take out of the over, allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then pour the hot Guelder rose liquid into the jars, allow to cool down then screw on the lids.

Guelder rose – a wild super fruit that smells like old socks

Home > Plants > Guelder rose

I went out yesterday with my beloved on a quest for some lush rose hips. The sun was shining, the breeze cool, church bells ringing out in the distance, and the human world quiet and calm.

It reminded me of when I was a boy. Of how Sunday’s used to feel before the advent of Sunday opening times. Where instead of spending nourishing nurturing time with family and friends, most folk now exist in a seven day hell of adrenalised work schedules and shallow shopping experiences.

Thank goodness the plants aren’t quite so bonkers!

As is often the case when I go foraging, while my brain likes to try and dictate to me what I intend to gather… life has a different plan for me.

And so it was yesterday.

Brain was saying “find rosehips”, but body guided me elsewhere. The elsewhere being to a community of Guelder rose (Viburnum opulus).

If you haven’t noticed Guelder rose, its most probably because when you see the bright, translucent berries unconscious mutterings from a parental authority whisper to you… “danger… red berries… avoid… poisonous”.

Or you simply haven’t noticed it before…

Contrary to its name, Guelder rose is not a rose. Formerly it was a member of the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae) but has recently been moved to a new family called Adoxa… you’ve got to love those crazy botanists and there new fangled genetic sequencing.

The Woodland Trust have a good description of Guelder rose here .

And it is also technically poisonous… if the fruits are eaten raw. But cooked and you’ll be experiencing something few folk have ever bothered tasting.

The berries when crushed have a strange smell, certainly one that doesn’t immediately incline you to befriend this plant. And when cooked they smell of musty old socks.

If you dab a drop of the raw juice on your tongue, you might recoil in disgust as the bitterness hits you.

But as I like to say to folk on my courses “The plant is never the problem, you are”.

And so it is with Guelder rose, you need to figure out how to use the cooked berries. Traditionally the fruits have been used during the Winter months in Russia, Ukraine, and various Eastern & North European countries.

The fruits are antimicrobial and antibacterial. It contains large amounts of quercetin, a flavonoid which plays an important role in fighting free radical damage, as well as being great as an anti-inflammatory. Needless to say bigPharma is actively researching the fruits for new medicines.

That all aside… the fruits rock when prepared properly.

Currently I have a muslin cloth dripping away in my kitchen, containing my own Guelder rose experiment, which is a jelly… hopefully delicious, and one that will go well on hot buttered toast or with game or a Sunday roast.

Here’s the guelder rose jelly recipe.