The Little Wild Library: Elder: Simple things to do with the plants around you.

by Sarah Atkinson

Overview

A favourite of foragers, the Elder tree is the very essence of summer, with frothy blooms emerging in the late spring and filling the hedges and pathways with a glorious fragrance. As the seasons turn, the elderberry comes into its own, a delicious food for humans and animals alike, bursting with vitality and an excellent source of vitamin c.

In The Little Wild Library: Elder, discover how to make the most of this beautiful tree, with recipes and makes to try throughout the year. Once you’ve found your favourite elder, come back as the seasons change and find new things to do with your foraged treasure – from edible treats to useful tinctures. Beginner-friendly, the elder is the perfect plant for those new to foraging to get to know – with easy-to-follow recipes for favourite makes such as the delicate and romantic elderflower champagne.

Learn how to identify the elder amidst its hedgerow friends from the comprehensive botanical information included, and take this pocket-sized book out on foraging adventures to help spot the elder blossom bursting forth in the spring sunshine – though you’ll be sure to catch its heavenly scent before you see it! As fall arrives, return to your favourite elder and gather the elderberries that shine brightly from its branches. Through the book, learn about the history of the elder, and discover some of the myths, legends, and folklore attached to this beautiful plant.

The perfect beginner's guide to foraging, in a handy pocket-sized format, The Little Wild Library: Elder will reveal the secrets of the hedgerow and inspire those new to foraging to experiment and explore the beautiful plants around them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781446313749
Publisher:	David & Charles
Publication date:	09/16/2025
Series:	Little Wild Library
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	4.17(w) x 5.51(h) x (d)

About the Author

Sarah Atkinson is a medical herbalist with over 30 years experience. In 2006 she founded The Medicine Garden in the South Lake District, UK, as a place to offer the holistic medicines she felt were becoming more crucial to healing “dis-ease”– as she puts it – in the modern world. Her particular style of healing has developed from her early career, where she was focused on the clinical sides of herbalism, to now embody a more holistic approach that explores and centres the mind/body connection.

Read an Excerpt

The English summer is bookended by elder; it comes into frothy bloom at the start and is sprinkled with bright berries at the end. Elder’s widespread abundance – you are never far from an elder tree or shrub even in a city – and the multitude of uses of both flowers and fruit, make it one of the forager’s go-to plants. 

One of the reasons for elder’s profusion is that it grows quickly and roots easily – two essential elements of a hedging plant. It was widely used as hedging in the 18th century because of this but went out of favour subsequently, and many trees were dug up and replaced. It is nothing if not resilient, however, and found other places to establish and flourish, helped by birds feasting on the berries and scattering seeds about.

Elder has many culinary and medicinal uses, along with other more surprising ones. During the medieval period, its hollow stems (with the pith removed) were used to blow into a fire to encourage flames. Its English name reflects this; it is rooted in the Anglo-Saxon word aeld which meant ‘fire’, or eldrun which meant furnace (because it burns so quickly, however, elder makes poor fuel). 

Its genus name, Sambucus, is a nod to the other use of the hollow stems. It refers to the Greco-Roman musical instrument the sambuca, which was made from the wood. Pliny the Elder (23–79ce), a Roman author and naturalist, called it the ‘pipe tree’ because of the many fifes, trumpets, and other wind instruments that were made from it.