Woodruff Season 05/22
The woodruff clusters at Cobenzl were ready to be picked right next to the trail.
Foraging
It was time! Sweet woodruff, aka Waldmeister, aka Odoratum galium was due to sprout in May!
There were plenty of options to make use of that, in the end it came down to 3 projects.
Syrup, liquor and distillate
But first things first, where does it grow? When does it grow? What is there to keep in mind when foraging? What is it that makes woodruff worth foraging? Is there anything to be mindful about when consuming the processed products?
In Austria, due to the tempered climate, Odoratum galium grows from April to July, while its flowers blossom in May or June. It prefers the shade of common beech trees; the soil should be airy and rich in nutrients. Due to its propagation method, big clusters of woodruffs can form over the years, like wild garlic.
In Austria, plants, mushrooms, and berries belong to the owner of the property, but, if not stated otherwise, it is allowed to forage amounts that would be reasonable per person (for instance: <2kg mushrooms p.p.). That applies to unprotected plants too, therefore I could pick woodruff to my heart’s desire.
According to my mother, woodruff grows plentiful at Cobenzl, a hill at the outskirts of Vienna. This turned out to be correct. But there was one thing to keep in mind: Cleavers (Galium aparine) are tricky to distinguish visually, which made Isolde and me hesitant to start picking. But there is one key difference that helps with the distinction. Cleavers are sticky to the touch; that is thanks to the hooked hairs they use for attaching to taller plants for better structural integrity.
With that in mind, a simple haptic test would give us the guarantee whether to pick or not.
Processing
As mentioned above, there were 3 things I wanted to use woodruff for.
Syrup
Most syrup recipes I found called for air-drying the fresh woodruff. Afterwards I made sugar syrup and submerged limes and the plants in the syrup for a few days. Then strain, reheat and bottling. The result: A fairly boring looking syrup with an intense hey-like fragrance and mellow and dulcet flavour. To be completely honest, my nostalgia took a hit. This was not what I remembered. In hindsight I realised, that the original just got outperformed by the artificial flavours. At least for seven-year-old me. It was time to get accustomed to the “new” flavour and the reality that came with it.
Liquor
Oh boy, what a project. After having the first, slightly disappointing, project done, I restarted my research and came across a very good article (in German) from mixology: https://mixology.eu/waldmeister-zubereitung-ernte-cumarin-cocktail/.
Because I was out of woodruff, I had to forage again. Going to Cobenzl wasn’t very attractive though, as the ride with public transportation would have taken almost an hour. Instead, I scanned the biggest wooded area in Vienna I live close by, the Prater. After an hour of looking out, I found a very small patch, which I meticulously harvested to get the most out of it. In the end, it was enough for half of the recipe’s ingredients. The plants got cleaned and dried, and a 3:2 sugar syrup prepared. The dried plants had to be submerged again, though this time in 96% vol. alcohol which I bought at the apothecary. 24h later, the alcohol turned into a deep, deep green, so green it was almost black. I was in awe. I did not expect the alcohol to be so good at extracting the colour, especially after the syrup was a disappointment, at least colour wise. I strained the alcohol and held back the plants, added the plants to the syrup, reheated and mixed alcohol with the syrup before bottling. And just wow. What a liquor. With around 48% vol. very intense for liquors (they usually come around 20% vol.), flavour wise sharp, astringent but the coumarin (the agent that gives woodruff its flavour and smell) was not overpowered.
A few days later, big, clunky sugar crystals formed in the bottles and made me uneasy. The crystals and the high alcoholic percentage led me to dilute it. Tap, bottled or distilled water came to mind, while more sugar syrup wouldn’t help with the crystal situation. In the end I added bottled water, mixed until the crystals were dissolved and the liquor stabilized at around 20% vol. Starting with the next day, the contents of the bottles got cloudy. Somehow I managed to destroy the homogeneity. The separation intensified until a green skin formed on the surface. I didn’t dare to taste it afterwards.
Distillate
Thanks to my mother, who is an experience herbalist, jam, and liquor witch (her products outperform local small batch factories!), I had access to a small copper distillery. My goal was to create a non-alcoholic gin with woodruff as one of its botanicals. We added juniper, woodruff, elderflower, blueberries, forest strawberries, pine sprouts, lad’s love, lemon verbena, strawberry leaves and tay berry leaves. We were left with 250ml of distilled clear herbal water.
The product tasted fresh and aromatic, though very gentle and no botanical was dominant. I could not make out any distinct source product. It would not be able to withstand the intense flavours of other ingredients in complex cocktails though. After all, my goal was to provide a non-alcoholic gin I could experiment with, to recreate my favourite gin-based cocktails.
Summary
In the end I could not create a product useful for my barkeeping hobby. I was negatively surprised by the syrups flavour; the liquor went bad (in some way or another) and the distillate did not yield enough output while its flavour was too dainty to be paired with other ingredients.
But I could familiarize myself with the plant that gave my blog its name, got to know it from more sides, learned a lot about it, processed it in different ways and will continue to do so. Despite not having created satisfying results, the techniques I got accustomed to and being out in the forest was rewarding enough. Additionally, the incredible colour of the liquor was just mind blowingly impressive. I will absolutely retry that one!
