Wild service vodka

There is a lovely recipe for wild service vodka (Aufgesetzten aus Elsbeeren) here:

http://www.elsbeere.net/

The German word Aufgesetzten does not appear to have an exact English translation, but having spoken to several fluent German speakers it seems to mean something like a 'pick-me-up' or, as my Northumbrian friend David Copeland would have said, a 'livener'.  It seems that one could make Aufgesetzten with any spirit and any fruit, though wild service berries should be particularly good as they combine apricot flavours from the fruit pulp and almond flavours from the seeds.

The recipe is at the end of the web site referenced above and I have translated it as follows:

To make the Aufgesetzten pound 400 grams of wild service berries in a non-metallic vessel.  Let the pounded pulp stand and ferment in a warm place for a week then put the pulp in a linen cloth (jelly bag) and squeeze the juice out.

Mix the juice with an equal quantity of vodka (at least 40% alcohol by volume), then mix the remaining pulp with 1/4 litre of vodka and filter the liquid off from this after two weeks.

Mix the two juices together and stir in three tablespoons of honey.

Leave at room temperature for one year before drinking.

One problem here is that the recipe does not specify whether the berries should be in their unripe and hard condition, or soft and ripe - probably the latter -though, if you can afford the vodka, it might be worth trying both and also experimenting with the fruit of other Sorbi.

Birds and Sorbus berries

There is a book called Birds and Berries by Barbara and David Snow (1988) that has useful details on the different wild birds that that eat the fruit and seeds of rowans, whitebeams and wild service trees as well as those of other of other plants.  See here:

http://goo.gl/Xk0WN

The Snows made their observations between 1980 and 1985 in Buckinghamshire and the adjacent parts of Hertfordshire in central southern England.

Not surprisingly the commoner British fruit- and seed-eating birds are the main culprits and, while they undoubtedly reduce the overall burden of seed available for germination, they also help to spread them.

In the case of the wild service (Sorbus torminalis) bullfinches (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) were particularly active seed eaters.  Redwings (Turdus iliacus) and song thrushes (Turdus philomelos) swallowed the whole fruit.  There is, however, no mention of mistle thrushes (Turdus viscivorus), that are reported as being very fond of the berries to the extent that a pair will 'guard' a tree and drive off any new arrivals.

The Snows suggest that a poor dispersal of the wild service could be a consequence of "unsuccessful competition with other plants" (meaning that birds are more attracted to various other fruits available when the services were ripe) combined with the high level of seed predation and that this might account for the species' relative scarcity.  However, they also say that the fruit normally has only one seed, making seed predation more of a problem than for species with more than one seed.  In my experience, though, the wild service often has three or even four seeds per fruit.

Whitebeam bangle

A firm called 'Jewel Thief' in Brighton, UK, that specialises in contemporary designer jewellery has produced an acrylic bangle with a hand printed whitebeam leaf motif.

Sorbus absurdus

Another Finnish rock group has turned up on my radar, this time called 'Sorbus Absurdus'.

Their music is deliberately rough and raunchy and their name, no doubt, a reference to the now discontinued Finnish Sorbus drink made out of sweet wine and rowan berries.

A Google search will bring forth many of their recorded numbers but it is, as I say, rough and raunchy, so you have been warned.

A old mistake

Browsing through Edward Connold's 1901 book British vegetable galls, I came across this picture.

Clearly the leaves of a wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis) galled by the mite Eriophyes torminalis.  However, the caption says "Leaves of Viburnum Opulus [guelder rose] GALLED BY Eriophyes Viburni" which decidedly is not correct.

Connold lived in St Leonards-on-Sea, only a few miles from my home, and was a great expert on plant galls.  In a way his error shows how easy it is to overlook wild service trees, which still grow in St Leonards, or to mistake them for something else.