Elderflower Cordial

Lovely warm sunshine today despite the threat of rain. I at home this weekend so managed to clean my flat from top to bottom, the sunshine was beautfilly illuminating all the dusty corners when I woke up the morning . The I went our for some brief walking and foraging . Well it was meant to be brief ended up being about 4 hours.

While I was picking elderflowers, I had a lovely chat with a Polish couple who were doing the same , we even discussed fungi gathering which is apparently big there were no fungi today its just been too wet in the South West but I said the woods they were in would have plenty.

Elderflower goes from perfect white flowers to brown dust very quickly so you have to gather it when you see it , thankfully it is plentiful growing even in cities especially along riverbanks and railways .

Once gathered it is incredibly easy to make Elderflower cordial delicous mixed with water especially sparkling water or for the particularly decandant champagne.

The cordial I find keeps well in the fridge for a month or so any more than that and it seems to go rather fizzy.

Its worth noting that its tricky getting hold of citric acid ,living in the city centre both major chemists have stopped stocking it apparently it is used by heroin users to as it helps breakdown the heroin for injection – Learn something new every day . You can however get citric acid on ebay or from wine brewing shops. If you really struggle you could use concentrated lemon juice .

Elderflower Cordial

30 heads of elderflower
3 pints of boiling water
200g of caster sugar
3 tbsp of citric acid
2 lemons , cut into quarters

1. Mix the sugarwith boiling water into a pan , leave to cool for 30 minutes you should be able to dip your finger in easily
2. Mix in the lemons , citric acid and elderflowers
3. Leave to cool and strain through a muslin bag ( I use a clean cotton shopping bag)
4. Place into clean bottles
5. To serve dilute by half

Other recipes

Elderflower Tart