Yesterday I had my first attempt at making elderflower cordial. I'd done a quick search on the internet for a recipe and found that I needed some citric acid but being late on a Saturday afternoon, had no chance of buying any so I used this recipe which used extra lemon instead.
The flowers are easy to come by as we have a tree in our garden and my hubbie kindly nipped up his stepladders to cut some flower heads off inbetween rain showers. He also debugged the flowers for me because I'm not too keen on creepy crawlies and the flowers seemed covered in them.
I never used like this tree much as I don't think its the prettiest to look at and have considered chopping it down but its grown on me over the years mainly because its something afew steps from my back door that I can use for free. Last year I made elderberry jam from some of the berries and even though it didn't turn out quite as I'd like, I'll have another go this year but maybe mix it with another fruit.
While we were at the bottom off the garden yesterday I noticed the hawthorn berries have started to make an appearence already. I used these last year to make hawthorn delight. ( I thought I'd used elderberries for this until my husband said he remembered being prickled picking them). We only have a small patch of hedge which we leave to grow berries so we usually trot off down to the canal armed with bags to pick more there.
We haven't had a Summer here yet and I'm already looking forward to berry picking with the kids and jam making.
