Day 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
Oh my yes I have made it and it is super yummy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m looking forward to tasting the result of this years attempt 🙂
LikeLike
Oooh hope this years turns out better. The W I usually know their stuff! For some reason your posts didn’t show on my reader. Hopefully future ones will. Xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
No worries. Yours doesn’t show on mine either. Good to have FB pages so can keep in touch x
LikeLike
Oh thats so annoying! Xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
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!).
LikeLiked by 1 person