In early June the Cornish countryside is brimming with beautiful, colourful wildflowers. One of the most fragrant is the elderflower, which can be found growing wild on trees all over our beautiful county. It’s many delicate white blooms are not only pretty, they can be picked and transformed into a delicious and refreshing natural drink.
Here is our recipe for Homemade Elderflower Cordial.
You will need:-
- 2 unwaxed lemons (zested and sliced into round slices)
- 85g citric acid
- 2.5 kilos of granulated or caster sugar
- 20 fresh elderflower heads, with the stalks trimmed.
- Steralised bottles
What to do:-
Get our your biggest saucepan and put in the sugar with 1.5 litres of water, then slowly heat, keep stirring and it don’t let it boil. Kep going until all sugar has dissolved.
Bring the solution to the boil, then remove it from the heat.
Fill a bowl with cold water. Use to rinse out any dirt or creepy crawlies from the flowerheads. Put everything into the syrup (flower heads, chopped lemons, zest and cirtric acid), give it a big stir and leave for 24 hours.
Next to drain the syrup. Get a colander and line it with a large clean tea towel. Then spoon in the syrup leaving it to drain though the material. Then your cordial is ready to bottle! We use a funnel and a ladle.
Storage – keep it in the fridge (for up to 6 weeks). It can be frozen ( but do allow space in the bottle for expansion!).
To Drink – it is ready to drink immediately. We like to mix it with sparkling water, or sparkling wine, or gin! Enjoy. You have made about 4 litres.
Coombe Farm’s Top Tip: If you pick the elderflowers in the sun, they will taste much better.
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