This makes a refreshing summer drink, with the main ingredient – elderflowers – on your doorstep and free for the picking.
Ingredients
- 7 heads of elderflower
- 8 pints of cold water
- 20 oz (560g) sugar
- 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar
- 2 lemons
Method
- Boil the water , pour over the sugar and leave to cool.
- When cold, add in the washed elderflower heads, sliced lemons and white wine vinegar
- Allow to stand for 24 hours
- Strain and bottle in strong wine bottles. Cork well — it’s fizzy! Important Safety note – don’t use ordinary wine bottles, or plastic bottles, as they are likely to explode! Use strong champagne-style bottles that will withstand the fermentation pressure; get advice from a wine or beer making supplier if you are unsure.
Source: Marjorie Ashdown of Ilkley. This was one of her mother’s recipes.
One Response to Elderflower Champagne
My mother used to make Elderflower Champagne when we were kiddies, she would send us out to pick the Elderflower with strict instructions not to shake the pillow from the flower heads we had to wait 2weeks before it was ready then the corks would start popping off you couldn’t use screw top bottles as it would burst the bottle I’ve got my children making it for something to do I still make it today using the flower heads when they first appear in the hedgerows away from the dusty roads and I’m 88 years old it’s delicious, but I don’t think we are allowed to call it Champagne today it’s now known as lemonade but it does have plenty of fizz in it