A friend of the house, saúco
- The writing of articles requires a short writing and I will take the most difficult work than I have done so far, selecting the elderum. In fact, when I was writing the book What Sendabelar knows, dedicating only six pages was a very complicated exercise. Once I offered him a three-hour course and we stayed short, then we organized the sixth and left some outstanding issues. Besides the multiple remedies, we have legends and stories that, from the anthropological and ethnographic point of view, we will learn many curious things. Therefore, this text today is the first of a series of texts, as the donation and knowledge of this plant is similar to the source that is not exhausted.
We began by saying that Sambucus nigra is also known as lintsusa, plausta, sabuka, sakuta, txutxika and aztunpa, in the places where we work in Euskera, with more variants, and that it not only indicates plant. Estitxu showed me that in Bortziriak I was a dumb girl, but in many places it is used to designate a person without blood; the example shown in the Basque General Dictionary is very illustrative: "Then he'll cry like a scourge."
It is said that it is a charismatic plant, because it does not leave anyone indifferent, you will find people who love and admire as much as hatreds. Those in the first group say it's poisonous and unhappy, that the viper lives underneath. In the second group, we were fascinated by elderhood and benefited. The "friend of the house" who called him Mariano Ostolaiz and remembered the beautiful verses he wrote to him, we also remembered the Mary who threw the elderum in Llanes (Asturias) and his father, but from which Aitziber, of Ainitze and Ondárru, of Lazkao, who have planted the elderum for his medication.
The nice tradition that is made with the patches of the sauce on St. John's day is still alive among us. I encourage you to bless him (whatever it may be) and make a cross, and then put it in the doors and windows of the house. This is a ritual for scaring lightning, thieves, witches and snakes.
As we have in the flower, today we will limit ourselves to flowers. It is said that we must meet only on sunny days, always in size, because if not in summer we will have no specimens. The flowers are dried upside down on a sheet or carton and taken as an infusion in winter, as it is a remedy for the respiratory tract. The best eye drops will be few, even with dry content.
It is also an anti-inflammatory and purifying agent, especially for the skin: if you object, place the flowers of the elderum. With the new dried flowers in sunflower oil we make an excellent product to clean, beautify and disguise the skin. With the new flowers rolled you can also make a refreshing drink, which by having natural yeasts will ferment and make a delicious champagne to drink. Brindis!
