Secret Recipe: Elderflower Vanilla Floats

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Elderflower soda: Living at the Edges

My favorite people are the ones who live at the edges, who don’t blend into the crowds or “default models.” They’re the ones who don’t quite fit the bucolic ideal of the American Dream or limitations of a nuclear family with the perfect white picket fence in the suburbs. I love the neurodiverse people with their fascinating perspectives. I love the people that have been shaped by abnormal life experiences. I love the dreamers, the artists, the poets, the musicians. The people that challenge societal expectations and fight through the brainwashing of social norms to blossom into their true selves. Challenging doesn’t begin to describe the process of peeling back the layers of compulsory heteronormativity, internalized misogyny, patriarchal expectations, and other systems of control and oppression. But those that are willing (or sometimes forced) to unweave the threads woven around them are blessed with the freedom to be absolutely, truly, completely themselves. 

Have you ever noticed that the edges are where all the fun can be found? Riparian zones (between streams and forest) are teeming with life; as are the tidepools tucked into the intertidal zone (between land and ocean.) The brambles between forest and field are full of a wild diversity of plants and animals, including one of my absolute favorites: elderflower. I can think of no better plant to celebrate the edge dancers, the creative thinkers, the queer community! The more in touch I become with my own queerness and the more ensconced I get in the lgbtqia+ community, the more I recognize the energy of elderflower amongst my spirit and my peers: enchantingly different, completely unique, and with a little sprinkle of the entirely unexpected. 

It’s ridiculously easy to brew fresh, fragrant elderflowers into a sparkling soda… After just a day or two you’ll have a soda sparkling with the wild and enchanting essence of elderflower. I love serving it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for the best float you’ve ever tasted. 

Cheers to the magic of elderflowers and the spaces they inhabit. Cheers to the people living authentically as themselves around the edges of societal stodginess. Cheers to the freedom to be exactly who we are. 

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