June is the time of year when you can make your own Elderflower Cordial. Just like the stuff you can buy in the shops except better!  (in our opinion)

The trees are in flower in hedgerows everywhere and its not only really tasty but cheap to make as well.

We try and make enough to last the whole year but equally you can make a much smaller quantity if you just want to try it out.  

The recipe below will keep for a year by adding a campden tablet before bottling.  This is added to kill any natural yeast that would end up fermenting the cordial.  If you will be drinking yours within a couple of weeks then you don't need this.  You can get Campden tablets from anywhere that sells homebrew equipment/kits.  

• 2 Lemons
• 30 heads of Elderflower (as in the picture above)
• 2 kg granulated sugar
• 50g Citirc acid powder
• 2 1/2 pt of boiling water

Mix together all the ingredients and leave for 5 days, stirring twice a day.  Strain the mixture before bottling. 

To keep for up to 1 year, add 1 crushed Campden tablet dissolved in a little water to the mixture after straining and before bottling.  

You can then bottle it in whatever you have lying around, we use old gin bottles, plastic drink bottles etc.  Anything with a good seal on it.