The above photograph is Elderflower and NOT an attention seeking imposter
What we did
We went 2 minutes down the road to my local elderflower bush. The night before we had toddled back to mine at 1am and went a bit mental every time we saw white flowers. I am going to put some pictures of the imposter plants which get you all excited and then when you get up close leave you disappointed and sad. I also don't want anyone to poison themselves.
The offenders i came across is the dreaded cow Parsely and Hawthorn tree
White flowers smells nice = elderflower. WRONG from a distance this has tricked me many a time. With Hawthorn (bottom picture)The flowers are way too big and the leaves all wrong! do not be tempted by this imposter! Cow Parsly grows on the ground. Do you think nature would make it this easy to make yummy cordial? NO its a white flower close to the ground back away!
Now i think collecting about 20-30 heads is about right.
Firstly wash them and try to get all the insects out. If you cant thats ok. We filtered ours later (use muslim or a J cloth!) to get rid of the pesky beasts. We melted sugar in a saucepan full of water. Now i put the water in first. Bad idea as this made my cordial, very watery.My advice is to add maybe a cup of water to the sugar until it has all melted and dissolved. You can always add more water!
You then need to add 3 lemons. I recommend putting the zest of one of the lemons in the sugar/water mixture and then just chop all of them up and (a little squeeze to get the juice out into the mixture might be quite cool) then add a chopped orange. Add the elderflower and leave in a cool place for 24 hours.
After this you have your cordial! i recommend keeping it in the fridge so it keeps better. I also think elderflower cordial+spirits= goodtime+no hangover (according to a very reliable source) = more goodtimes!
Enjoy!
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20-30 heads Gemma? Was this recipe to feed the 5000? didn't we use about 5? x
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