(3 Jul 2012) LEADIN
Transylvania’s elderflower business is blossoming.
The area is considered Europe’s last great lowland landscape and locals are beginning to harvest the benefits of its king crop.
STORYLINE:
In the heart of Transylvania, miles and miles of wildflower-rich grasslands surround the small 13th century town of Saschiz.
Elderflowers are everywhere here.
They are so abundant that a study found 26 tons of elderflowers bought by a British company from 1,200 residents represents just 3 to 4 percent of the local elderflower harvest.
Cornel Stanciu, a worker at ADEPT, a foundation that protects Transylvanian farms, explains the town’s elderflower plants are bringing much-needed business opportunities:
“Out of elderflowers you can make both juice and concentrate. Also you can make elderflower jam which is very appreciated. And very interesting,” he says.
This tranquil haven depicts rural scenes that look like pages from Grimms’ fairy tales.
With its UNESCO heritage site of a Saxon fortified church and lush meadows, it is an unspoiled treasure.
But with unemployment in the town of 2-thousand people standing at 30 percent, the ancient sustainable landscape is being put to good use.
Local pickers are rediscovering the treasures of their back gardens.
According to the local manufacturer, more than 1-thousand of the poorest local people here are direct beneficiaries of this activity, half of them women and children.
In many cases, collecting wild flowers is their only source of income.
They deliver bags of elderflowers to a local factory and receive payment according to weight.
With one flower weighing 6 grams only, collecting 26 tons of elderflower – as they did in last spring – is quite an exercise.
The Transylvania Food Company (TFC) transforms the plants into semi-finished elderflower juice.
A British company, the Food development Company Ltd (FDC), is buying most of its produce.
Jim Turnbull, founder of FDC, indicates the possibilities ahead:
“We are putting a huge amount of money into the community every May and June just for elderflower, but we are using the same teams to collect other fruit and berries that we are making into jams and juices. ”
After the flowers are picked, the juice is extracted from the scented cream petals and is then sent to Britain to be bottled as delicate elderflower cordial, sold in upmarket supermarkets and pubs.
Sugar, lemon, a touch of citric acid and water complete the recipe of the quintessentially English cordial.
Elderflower cordial is becoming one of the UK’s fastest growing soft drinks exports, and there’s growing demand for the precious blossom.
The circle is closed when the finished elderflower products are exported back to Romania.
But elderflowers are not the only reason Saschiz is generating interest.
Better known for the myth of Count Dracula, the region is experiencing a timid revival, with famous regular visitors, like Britain’s Prince Charles, attracting attention.
Saschiz is only 15 kilometres (9 miles) from the fabled town of Sighisoara, where Vlad the Impaler, the bloodthirsty Romanian prince who inspired Bram Stoker’s 19th century Dracula novel, was born.
Locals and conservationists hope that a careful balancing act between small-scale farming and tourism will bring prosperity while preserving the area’s rich natural diversity.

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