Making elderflower cordial

Nothing smells more like summer than elderflower, and harvesting it to make cordial left our whole house smelling gorgeous.

We have our very own elderflower tree in the garden, so we didn’t have to race any local pensioners to collect the flowers just as they bloomed, we could wait and pick the best blooms at the perfect time – apparently on a nice dry day, early in the morning when the scent is strongest. eld1

The recipe we used to make our cordial is:

  • 2½ kg white sugar, either granulated or caster
  • 2 unwaxed lemons
  • 20 fresh elderflower heads, stalks trimmed
  • 85g citric acid

You can usually get citric acid from the chemists, but all of ours around here had run out. In the end we met a lady in Frome by chance who happened to have some left from a school project. David helped her carry her bags home in return for a packet of it!

First off we zested the lemons and cut them into slices, and we found a clean tea towel and some garden twine for covering the pot when we’re done. We put the sugar (it is a LOT of sugar) with one and a half litres of tap water into a great big stockpot we bought cheaply in IKEA. You have to heat the mix but not boil it, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Once the sugar is all dissolved you can turn up the heat and get the mix boiling, and then turn off the heat. We rinsed the flowers briefly in cold tap water to remove any insects, and then dropped them into the syrup with the lemon slices, zest and citric acid. Apparently the citric acid helps to keep the cordial clear. Then we tied the tea towel around the top of the pan (instead of using the lid – it needs to be able to breath) and left it for 24 hours. eld2

The next day we removed the tea towel and used this to strain the syrup – you’re supposed to use muslin cloth but this did the job fine. We ladled the syrup through the tea towel into a bowl and the threw out the flowers. We sterilize the bottles we were using by washing them with soap and water, and then rinsing with boiling water and drying in the oven. eld3

The cordial is really tasty, especially when it is mixed with fizzy water. We froze one bottle and gave one to my Nan and Grandad, and we’ve been enjoying the others all summer!

The bee tree

We have no idea what this tree is – it grows like mad (we cut it back twice before the spring) and in May it had tiny flowers all over it that never opened. Now the flowers have turned into little red berries. The bees absolutely love it and some days you could hear the buzzing of hundreds of bees when you were the other side of the garden. Any idea what it is? Free courgette to the first person to get the answer!

beetree

Finding our garden: a little surprise

When we moved into our house we didn’t realise our garden was quite as big as it was!

After fighting through mountains of brambles and nettles we have discovered the outline of what was clearly a once much-loved plot, but it is probably fair to say we are both excited and nervous as we realise how much work is ahead of us in getting it back under control.

In among the overgrowth there is a chicken run, a summer house with a shed extension (and a stained glass window!), a garden shed, a wood shed and a raised garden border. Only after we started clearing and Katrina fell into it did we realise we also had a pond, which on further exploration turned out to be two ponds!

finding

The lack of leaves on anything has made it hard to identify much, but there is definitely a cooking apple tree and an eating apple tree, a plum tree and a pear tree. There is a lovely bamboo plant, and numerous fruit bushes – gooseberry, black currant and red currant most likely.

We’re looking forward to the weather improving so we can start clearing everything and see what is actually here and what needs doing before spring arrives..!