30 Days Wild 2018 – Day Three.


downloadDay 3: This Sunday David and I (with Riley), ventured to Liverpool’s Festival Gardens in search of elderflowers. We walked 2.6 miles looking for full blooms and thankfully came away with 25 flower heads.

Once back home I cut the heads from the storks, grated the zest from four lemons and boiled a kettle.

Since last years recipe had mixed results, I opted to try another recipe. The recipe I followed was from The Women’s Institute.

  • 25- 30 full Elderflower Heads in full bloom
  • 2 kg Sugar
  • 2 lt Water
  • 4 Lemons, juice and pared zest
  • 1-2 tbsp White Wine Vinegar
  • Dried Yeast, pinch

Method

  • Boil the water and pour onto the sugar in a large previously sterilised container.
  • Stir until the sugar dissolves, then add cold water up to 6 litres.
  • Add the lemon juice and zest, the vinegar and the flower heads and stir gently.
  • Cover and leave to ferment in a cool, airy place for a couple of days. At this point, check and if it has not started to ferment (a few bubbles) add a pinch of yeast.
  • Leave the mixture to ferment, covered for a further four days.
  • Strain the liquid through a muslin lined sieve into sterilised champagne glass bottles. Seal and leave to ferment in the bottles for a further eight days before serving, chilled.

I will keep you updated on the champagnes progress.

Have you tried making elderflower champagne/cordial?

Thanks for reading, and keep wild!

Christine x

 

6 thoughts on “30 Days Wild 2018 – Day Three.

  1. I’ve never tried making it myself but I do enjoy drinking it. It’s one of those things I think ‘one day I will try it! but never to. I thought of it today in fact, when we got home from Yorkshire and noticed one single elderflower head in the garden (there’s a small tree hiding in the privet hedge!).

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