We’ve been noticing the elderflower tree at the bottom of the garden flowering again.  Last year, we didn’t get around to doing anything about it until it was too late, which is a massive shame because the year before, we made our own elderflower cordial and it was fantastic.

The main part of the tree is unfortunately too high or too far from our garden to get at the flowers, but I’ve picked well over 20 flower heads off the tree and barely touched what’s there.  We’ve run out of sugar long before we’ve run out of flowers, so must get to the shops and get ready to make even more.

Just in case the recipe I use isn’t permanently on the internet, and my records last longer, the recipe is:

• 20 elderflower heads
• 1.8kg sugar
• 1.2l water
• 75g citric acid
• 2 lemons

Shake the flowers to get the insects out. Boil the water and dissolve the sugar and acid in it.  Use a vegetable peeler to take wide strips of peel off the lemons, remove the ends, slice finely and add the peel and slices to the flowers in a bowl. Pour over the flowers, cover with a tea towel and allow to steep for 24 hours before filtering through a muslin-lined sieve into a bottle.