Japanese honeysuckle is so amiliar that it seems to belong wherever it grows. And it does grow almost everywhere. The deli-ciously persuasive scent o the vines’ flowers encourages many gardeners to avert their eyes rom its destructive, strangling nature. Widespread across the United States and Canada, as well as Europe and as ar south as New Zealand, its tenaciously twining habit is responsible or significant habitat transor-mation as it outcompetes native plants by
OTHER COMMON NAMES:
Japanese honeysuckle
BOTANICAL NAME:
Lonicera japonica
STATUS:
Noxiously invasive perennial vine
WHERE:
Woodlands, clearings, meadows, and gardens across the US and Canada
SEASON:
Late spring
USE:
Aromatic
PARTS USED:
Flowers
GROW?
No
TASTES LIKE:
Honeysuckle
Honeysuckle
• F, H, Fewer flowers mean ewer ruits, which means a slower spread. It is a drop in the biodiversity bucket, but what a delectable drop.Honeysuckle has one use or me: as an aro-matic. The flowers make the most heady cordial I have tasted, and its seamless transla-tion rom one sense to the next—smell to taste—seems miraculous. Sweet cordial is partnered by a complex and tart vinegar, and these two simple inusions inorm countless subsequent creations.
How to Collect and Prepare
Pick only the flowers (the green parts and ruit are considered toxic). This takes patience, but the reward is a ew heady cupuls. Use a paper bag or collection, as they sweat too much in plastic. Try to use them within a ew hours o collection while their perume is strongest. Do not wash them, or scent-be-gone.shading them and stealing their lunch money (well, sucking up their nutrients rom the soil). Its black ruits, ripening in autumn, are readily eaten by birds, and the seed is spread as they travel.Stateside, Japanese honeysuckle irst appeared on Long Island early in the nine-teenth century (preceding garlic mustard by a ew decades), encouraged to the continent by horticulturists. Like garlic mustard, war has been declared on it by almost every state.My own romantic notions o honeysuckle have been hard to shake. I remain smitten by that scent. So when I spend a quiet hour in early summer picking its tubular flowers on an empty pathway in a city woodland, an intense sense o nostalgia is evoked by the delicate petals that I am dropping into my paper bag, which fills slowly with memories rom childhood, and a subliminal chatter pro-vided by a lietime o literature. But the rationalist in me appreciates the act that
H •
Combine all the ingredients in a large clean jar and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Cover the mouth with cheesecloth secured with string or a rub-ber band and stir daily. After several days, once fermentation is very active (lots of bubbles, flowers slowly rising out of the jar), push the flow-ers down and keep stirring. Give it an extra day, then strain through a fine-mesh sieve. Strain again through a double layer of cheesecloth. Pour into clean bottles and close. For peace of mind keep the bottles in the fridge, as some fermentation will continue. A bottle can explode, left out and warm. Reserve the strained flowers to make Quick Honeysuckle Vine-gar. To make long-form vinegar from the cordial itself, see Elderflower Vinegar—The Long Way.
3 cups (3 ounces/85 g) honeysuckle flowers5 cups (1
1
⁄
4
liters) water2 cups (400 g) sugar
Fermented Honeysuckle Cordial
Makes 5 cups (1¼ liters)
This is probably the most delightul fizzy drink I know. It tastes exactly the way that honeysuckle smells. Make it with just honeysuckle flowers, or combine with
Rosa multiflora
(which will make it slightly pink), or elderflower.
Place the honeysuckle flowers in a clean jar. Cover with vinegar. Let steep for 2 weeks. Strain through a double-mesh sieve, again through cheese-cloth, and bottle. This vinegar keeps indefinitely until opened (after which store it in the fridge).
1 packed cup (about 200 g) strained honeysuckle flowers2
1
⁄
4
cups (560 ml) white wine vinegar
Quick Honeysuckle Vinegar
Makes about 2¼ cups (560 ml)
It is a crime to throw out the ragrant pomace afer you have strained the Fermented Honey-suckle Cordial. Instead, transer it to a clean jar, and cover with good white wine vinegar.