Saturday 6 June 2009

Elderflower


There is a divine smell in my kitchen - we are making elderflower cordial. My helper today is Charlie, and so far we've picked about 150 heads of flowers, enough to make litres and litres of cordial. Slightly worrying is the 10kg of sugar we've used, but it all gets diluted and the smell and taste of the elderflowers is so pungent that we never need use much of the concentrated cordial in each glass to release the heady memories of late spring.



We'll leave the elderflowers and citrus fruits to steep overnight and then strain and decant the syrup into the many plastic bottles I've been hoarding over the past weeks. It's lovely to know that we'll be enjoying this delicious essence of spring for months to come.





10 comments:

  1. I love making elderflower cordial too, the elderflowers around here have only just started to appear. I like to wait until they have had a lot of sun on them, but all we've had is rain so far - booooo! Hope we get some sunny weather before they all get blown away... Bet yours will taste scrummy! x

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  2. Oooh, that looks fab - I love making things in enormous pots! Thanks for reminding me to go and pick elderflowers and get stirring :)

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  3. Gosh! We've only made a couple of litres so far. But will be doing some more next week - if the sun ever comes out again. Love your pics!

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  4. Wonderful photos and a wonderful idea. Now, I just need to find some elderflowers . . .

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  5. I am planning to make some soon, but am having difficulty sourcing some citric acid.
    I've never made it before but drink the bottle green stuff by the glass full. If I DM you anychance you could let me have your recipe, it looks fab Vx

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  6. Wow, you're like a domestic goddess :) Love those photos, they're beautiful!

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  7. Beautiful, I can almost smell it! And you've been tagged by me! It took me ages and I've just seen that you only had a tag recently, so no worries if you want to declare feignites!* gx

    *we used to say this with crossed fingers to avoid being tagged in games of 'it' or chase - not sure how widespread its use is nowadays!

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  8. Just popped over to your blog from jellybelly's blog! Glad I did as the Elderflower cordial looks yummy. I want to make some gooseberry and elderflower jam but not sure or where to look for elderflowers! Hope I'm not too late to pick some!

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  9. It looks utterly delicious! I must make some.

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  10. This looks so yummy! Great pics x

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