Elderflower Cordial

Sitting, looking at the rain and seriously considering going to the allotment to dig out the weeds has made me realise how desperate I'm beginning to get.  I do have things growing but there are more weeds than anything else.  I often look at the weeds and wonder which ones we could eat.

 My new book, The Hedgerow Handbook by Adele Nozedar, should help but in the meantime I used it to make some elderflower cordial.

The first challenge was to pick the elderflowers.  They should be picked in full sunshine at exactly the right time.  When you shake the flower heads they should stay on the stems.  You shouldn't pick them from the roadside because of the petrol fumes.  Finally, there was half an hour of sunshine and I managed to pick 20.

Warning:  If you don't make the cordial straight away you will be searching the whole house for the smell of cat's urine!

I couldn't make mine straight away because I didn't have any citric acid (or enough sugar).  Citric acid has to be bought from the chemist.  If you go to get some, learn from my mistake.   Don't go straight from the allotment, with soaking wet hair, muddy fingernails and scruffy clothes.  Don't say, "that's not much!" when presented with a 50g box.  And don't look very confused when the pharmacist smiles and says, "I'm only trying to help you, love"    Apparently, it's sale is restricted as it can be used by drug users.

The recipe uses 1 1/2 bags of sugar.  That's an obscene amount of sugar. I added 1.8litres of boiling water and stirred until the sugar dissolved.  When this it was cool I added the elderflowers, two sliced unwaxed lemons and the citric acid and left it for 2 days.

After putting the cordial into bottles I had some left over so I've frozen them.  I think elderflower ice cubes will be fantastic in my fizzy water.