Friday, 4 July 2008

Yum!


The elderflowers are now in full (if rather late) bloom, and yesterday I picked plenty to make elderflower cordial (recipe here). I was especially pleased that our little potted lemon trees had some lemons that I could use. When I told T what I was doing, he begged me to make some elderflower champagne too, which he'd seen Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall making recently on the latest River Cottage TV series. I'm a little wary of elderflower champagne as it has a reputation for resuming fermentation once bottled with explosive results (one recipe I consulted rather worryingly advised 'always put bottles which contain sparkling wine in cardboard boxes so as to minimise the danger of flying glass'). Still, Hugh F-W's recipe (scroll down - it's almost at the bottom of the page) seems to indicate it can be drunk pretty quickly after bottling, unlike most home-made wines. And with my birthday coming soon and visitors due to help celebrate, hopefully it won't be in the bottles long enough for any catastrophic eruptions.

The kitchen now smells deliciously of blossoms and citrus. As we seem to have a bumper crop of flowers this year, perhaps I could devise an elderflower and lemon pot pourri too?



8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, for a taste of this magical brew! You remind me, it is time for me to make a bit of strawberry vodka for this winter's taste of summer.

Sweet kisses to you and yours.

Donald

Zahara Celestial said...

Your post is so evocative...even better that you can also use your own grown lemons! I can imagine the smell

:o)

Anonymous said...

What beautiful images, I really must try to make it.

Tempewytch said...

Sounds wonderful!I need to start making home-made wine again I think (I remember making a strawberry wine that ended up as a liquour!) - I hope the elderflower champagne works out well for you.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Lemons from your very own tree! How wonderful!
And these photos are simply gorgeous.
xo

Reya Mellicker said...

Just like last year, reading about your elderflower cordials makes my mouth water. YUM!!

Love the pics, too.

Cottage Smallholder said...

That looks simply delicious.

I missed the elderflowers this year - we have a large tree so i's going to be gallons of elderberry wine instead.

How lovely using your own lemons!

Paul Rousselle said...

Wonderful! That really is something I must someday try!