I moved house in December 2022 and was sorry to say goodbye to my beloved goji berry bush that I'd grown from seed and my full and thriving herb garden. However although the new garden was a blank canvas with very little plants or trees in it I discovered, thanks to my Mum!, that the tree with dark purple leaves in front of the kitchen window was in fact a pink Sambucus Nigra!!
I've been waiting patiently for the flowers to bloom and for the sun to be out so I can pick the pink flowers and make my own cordial safe in knowledge that because it's in my garden and I don't live by a main road there will be minimal air pollutants.
So all last week I've been harvesting flowers and making batches of cordial, playing around with the amount of citric acid I use. There are so many variations in recipes out there all with different amounts of sugar/water/citric acid.
Here's the one I used:
Ingredients
15-20 elderflower heads
200g unrefined sugar
500ml of boiling water
2 unwaxed lemons
20g of citric acid
Method
Gently shake off any bugs from the flowers without shaking away too much of the fragrant pollen
Add the sugar to a pan and cover in boiling water
Bring to the boil until sugar has dissolved then turn off the heat
Add the elderflower heads and lemon peel and juice making sure ingredients are all submerged
Leave for 12 to 24 hours to infuse
When you are ready to strain your cordial use a muslin cloth or clean tea towel over a bowl and pour the cordial through it.
Store in sterilised bottles or jars and dilute with filtered water, soda or prosecco
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