Dont you just love the days the hedges seem to be covered in snow in the middle of summer, like some fairy has sprinkled icing sugar all over them. First the whitethorn blossoms burst forth as only it can. And then tah dha...The arrival of the almost heavenly Elderflower, which in my book deserves to have a national holiday or festival similar to the cherry blossom in Japan!

So, when the sun has been out for a couple of days, and the Elderflower is just blossoming, the kids and I take off around the farm, with trugs or bags or buckets, whatever we can put the blossoms into. In ordeer to try to harness the enthusiasim, they have a little competition to see who can collect the msot but this dies a death after about 5 seconds! So they continue to "find" great branches of blossoms but leave the actual collection up to me. Its also a good idea to get some blossoms which still have a few buds on them, they appear to be at there most fragant at this stage. This leands itself to a great tasting batch of cordial

After cooking up the first batch of Elderflower coridal this year, it is duly deemed divine. The recipe I am using is  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's  River Cottages recipe and it has yet to fail to deliver. I must admit my mouth waters merely at the sight of the Elderflower blossoms bursting forth at this tiem of year. I day dream of making oceans of the cordial. I cant quite decide which is more yummy the cordial or the Elderflower Champagne but until I get cracking on the fizzy stuff, the cordial will more than suffice. When storing the cordial, any container will do (as you can see in the picture!)but if freezing, try using freezer bags, as they take up less room than bottles. you can then transfer to bottles as you defrost.



Ingredients

• About 25 elderflower heads
• Finely grated zest of 3 unwaxed lemons and 1 orange, plus their juice (about 150ml in total)
• 1kg sugar
• 1 heaped tsp citric acid (optional)

Directions

Inspect the elderflower heads carefully and remove any insects. Place the flower heads in a large bowl together with the orange and lemon zest.
Bring 1.5 litres water to the boil and pour over the elderflowers and citrus zest. Cover and leave overnight to infuse.

Strain the liquid through a scalded jelly bag or piece of muslin and pour into a saucepan. Add the sugar, the lemon and orange juice and the citric acid (if using).

Heat gently to dissolve the sugar, then bring to a simmer and cook for a couple of minutes.

Use a funnel to pour the hot syrup into sterilised bottles. Seal the bottles with swing-top lids, sterilised screw-tops or corks