The elder has flowered early this year, no doubt duped by the endless days of sunshine this year. As ever, the flowers closest to home are either too high for me to reach, on the wrong side of a wide ditch or next to a busy track along which lorries thunder past all day.
But, as I walked around the farm, I’ve kept an eye on a lone elder that overhangs the wide ditch running between Lakes Field and Great Forest, the branches dipping down just low enough for me to reach. If I stand on tiptoe. And reach precariously across the ditch. This week I decided the large saucer shaped flowers were ripe for picking and duly collected a small bagful of elderflower heads.
I flip flop each year between making elderflower cordial and a sparkling elderflower drink. I like cordial because it’s concentrated and keeps for a long time but I have to remember to buy soda water to mix with it as I prefer it fizzy. On the other hand, sparkling elderflower needs no soda water but takes up more room because it’s already diluted and needs careful storing so the bottles don’t explode.
This year, my mind has been made up for me. I have no desire to stand in a long, socially distanced queue at the pharmacy to buy citric acid (or more likely, try to buy it as they inevitably sell out), which is needed for the cordial recipes. So, it’s sparkling elderflower for 2020.
This year, I’ve added a few scented rose petals to the mix. I hoped the rose petals would turn the drink pink as they do with the Elderflower and Rose Cordial but I didn’t use enough deep coloured petals so I have the flavour but not the colour. Which is fine by me.
If you’d like to make Sparkling Elderflower & Rose, the recipe is below. Leave out the rose petals for a Sparkling Elderflower drink.
Pick the elderflowers on a dry day, choosing the creamy new heads (rather than old and browning ones) and give them a shake to dislodge any lurking insects. Back home, use them straight away.
Sparkling Elderflower and Rose Drink
Ingredients
700g granulated sugar2 tablespoons cider (or white wine) vinegar
20 good sized elderflower heads – flowers pulled or cut from main stem
4 roses – petals only (I snip them off with scissors)
1 lemon – juice and zest (use a vegetable peeler)
1 lemon – sliced
Directions
Put everything into a large bowl or a bucket and add 1 gallon (4.5 litres) of cold water.
Cover the bowl with a cloth (not cling film as it needs to breathe) and leave for 48 hours. Stir occasionally to help dissolve the sugar.
Strain and pour into sterilised bottles. Use bottles with corks or fizzy drinks bottles otherwise your bottles might explode (I speak from experience).
Leave the bottles in a cool, dry place for two or three weeks. If you use plastic bottles, you’ll know when it’s ready to drink as the gas will fill the bottles so that the sides are very firm.
Open carefully!
LIFE IN MUD SPATTERED BOOTS 
thank you for sharing, it sounds amazing.
Am determined to try this and/or the cordial this year.. Thanks for sharing.
Oh this takes me back! My grandmother always made it, and I so vividly remember collecting the elderflowers, the sticky surfaces in her Yorkshire kitchen – and then the years when the bottles (saved fizzy lemonade bottles with rubber grip tops) exploded in the pantry … Once one went, they all did. What a mess! Silly to remember the bad years, because actually it was quite regularly the drink of our childhood – delicious 🙂
I remember sitting one lunch time when the elderflower drink exploded. We all rushed to the hallway where it was stored and the boots and coats were covered in sticky elderflower! Luckily I’d used a plastic milk carton so there was no glass to clear up. As I remember, we took the other bottles outside and loosened the tops to let the gas escape but we drank it all soon after that.
This is so pretty Anne! I have not seen elder before, is it a large plant or tree?
Elders can grow to about four metres high but round here they mostly grow in the hedgerow, so tend to get cut back every few years. I’m not sure if they’re a large shrub or a small tree Jane!