Roadside Pollutants in edible plants

[Fitz]

Ok so this is barely on topic, but...

So I discover we have an Elderflower plant in our front garden. I'd like to have a go at making some elderflower cordial because it's nice, so I have found a recipe and it's actually really easy.

The plant is about 4 meters from the road, which is a main residential road with traffic throughput of about 20 cars/minute peak? (maybe - I havn't actually counted) dropping to less than 1 car/min off peak.

Now I'm wondering about risk from pollutants in the flowers. The recipe calls for 30 elderflower heads which makes 6 pints. Given that this is then diluted will any pollutants in the plants be high enough concentration to be a health risk?

I remember as a kid being told not to eat berries from roadside because they were full of lead. Then I remembered that we only had unleaded petrol these days. Then I found an article saying that benzene is produced from burning unleaded fuel and it's highly carcinogenic. Does that sound right?

Given that I cycle 4 miles to work and back every day through traffic is the extra exposure of the eldeflower cordial going to be worth worrying about?

[Tim Mitchell]

In article , Fitz writes

You make it sound like radioactivity!

Personally, I would just wash it and not worry, but you could always go to some nearby countryside and pick some elderflowers, it's all over the place at the moment.

The treat in our family used to be "elderflower champagne" which mysteriously turned fizzy (not alcoholic though!). We made it in glass bottles (before the days of plastic pop bottles) but it had a tendency to explode in hot weather...

[Rob Morley]

I was going to make that point, but you beat me to it :-)

[Newshound]

Er, sorry, I don't think there is really any mystery. Something to do with sugar, wild yeast. But you don't need much alcohol to get a good fizz if most of the fermentation is in the bottle. I seem to recall that elderflower champagne and (real, home made) ginger beer is round 1%.

[Kenny of the Fells]

Definately. Many years ago as a student I drank a load of elderberry wine, after which I was very ill. It later turned out that the berries were picked from right next to the M25.

KotF

[manatbandq]

Correlation is not the same as causation.

You need more evidence to prove the connection.

MBQ

[Tim Mitchell]

In article , [e-mail] writes

Drinking a load of elderberry wine is enough to make anyone ill. I doubt the M25 had anything to do with it.

[usenet]

So if you ate berries from Deadly Nightshade you found by the road you'd blame your illness (death?) on the pollutants from the road would you?

If you'd drunk two lots of elderberry wine, made by the same maker using the same method, one of which made you ill and the other didn't then I'd be a bit more convinced by your argument, but even then it would hardly be conclusive.

[Kenny of the Fells]

Actually the above was supposed to be a bit of a joke - guess it doesn't come off a keyboard like that. Having said that, this was the only wine that I've ever had that produced a hangover within minutes of drinking it, but whether that was down to the production method or the berry content I wouldn't like to say.

KotF

[Fitz]

I got it. Chuckled quite a bit actually.

I was going to reply along the lines that by your reasoning most of the beers at the Loughborough University 1995 Beer Festival must have been brewed from ingredients grown in a toxic waste ground, given how ill I was for the subsequent 48 hours.

;-)

[Rob Morley]

I thought that was your intention - but I couldn't see a :-)

My mate used to make beer like that, it didn't stop us drinking it though.