Anyway, I've posted a couple of times in my garden diary this week, about a few critters we've spotted in our yard, if you are interested in taking a look ;-)
In the meantime, check it out:
Our first Elderberry flower buds. I'm hoping I might just get enough flower heads to make some Elderberry 'champagne' a la Hugh F-W. Any tips for me?
Cheers,
6 comments:
I made HFW's elderflower cordial this year. YUM! Some tips, however: the first batch of "tincture" I made had a quite funky, not entirely pleasant smell. Actually, it was so bad I tossed it. For subsequent batches, I took the trouble to trim almost all the green stem away from the blossoms. The smell was still a bit odd, but definitely less offensive. So I stuck with that method. It's a little fussy, but it was worth it for me. Also, if you plan to store the cordial, it's well worth it to include tartaric or citric acid to help preserve the light color. My jars of canned cordial have darkened slightly, and some sediment has settled out, but it's still DEElicious. I'm sure you'll love it. (I added what elderberries I got later in the season to pears to make a pear-elderberry jam. It too was YUM.)
I hope I get enough flower heads this year to make elderflower cordial - just love it! Have you made any?
Hi Kate,
Awesome, thanks! That's a huge help :-) And the jam sounds divine, I will make a note of that for when my bush gets bigger!
Hi slowinsydney,
No I haven't yet, this is the first year I've grown an elderberry (my Mum gave me a seedling last year). I'm so keen to try it as everyone seems to recommend it, so it must be good!
Cheers,
Julie
Our elderberry wine was a bit of a botch. Very dry and tart. Added extra sugar but somehow the yeast digested it and just produced more alcohol.
We use it as a marinade!
PS they are very hard to homogenize.
I'm a bit behind on the play here, but did you get around to making some? We foraged for elderflower heads this year and made 15 litres of champagne! I was divine and we are TRYING to not drink the last few bottles, so as to 'cellar' it for at least a few months, but it's very hard! I did a post on it, with the recipe we used as well :)
Here:
http://suburbanhomemade.blogspot.com/2010/12/elderflower-champagne.html
Hi Amy,
No I didn't have enough heads - but thanks for your link, I'm off to check it out :-)
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