The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Food & crafts => Food processing => Topic started by: HappyHippy on June 21, 2013, 05:49:49 pm
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Spurred on by the encouraging results of my nettle cordial (not officially ready til tomorrow, but I had a taste yesterday and it was lovely :yum:) I'm thinking about other forraged drinks ;D
I know we definately have Elder, but before I go scouring all 130 acres looking for the right tree, I just want to check when the usual time to harvest the flowers is ? I'm just south of Glasgow, 1000ft above sea level, if that makes a difference ?
If I've missed the flowering season, it'll just have to be Elderberry cordial later in the year instead ;)
I know you guys will know, so many thanks in advance :thumbsup:
Karen x
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Karen,
I want to make some elderflower wine and I am still waiting for mine to flower. At the moment its very tight green buds. I would say its at least a couple of weeks away yet.
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I don't think you will have missed it yet - ours is only just budding!!!! At least a month late I recon.
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just been out to check and ours are just flowering now, must've happened in the last day or so.
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mines full of flower at the moment but im on continental Europe!
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Now - in Surrey..
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Just starting to get flowers in Midlothian but still mostly buds. Give it a week or so I'd say
Dans
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Thanks guys :thumbsup:
I suspect I'll be out before the end of the week looking and possibly harvesting ;)
Will keep you posted :yum:
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Karen ours are just starting to flower so yours are probably the same
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ours hasnt flowered yet
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I've just "harvested". ;D (ie I have chopped down the elderflower tree which keeps growing in my garden and no matter what I do to it, comes back every damn year!). Made elderflower syrup and elderflower cordial.
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First batch today for me in Kent!
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I am overrun with elder at the moment and have left it now to flower so I can have a go at cordial. Noticed a few flowers coming this week but not fully out yet so I reckon you're about right on time and hopefully can post your experiences to guide me in my first attempts!
I should do nettles too, another crop I'm good at.. but there's something about them and elder that I've never managed to produce anything useful from, I think somewhere I'm convinced the complex structures of the elderflowers will harbour some creepy crawly thing I miss and end up consuming..
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Mine are just starting to flower hoping to make cordial
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I am overrun with elder at the moment and have left it now to flower so I can have a go at cordial. Noticed a few flowers coming this week but not fully out yet so I reckon you're about right on time and hopefully can post your experiences to guide me in my first attempts!
I should do nettles too, another crop I'm good at.. but there's something about them and elder that I've never managed to produce anything useful from, I think somewhere I'm convinced the complex structures of the elderflowers will harbour some creepy crawly thing I miss and end up consuming..
Last year I made elderflower cordial for the first time. It was a recipe handed down from OH's sister. I was very sceptical about it but it turned out to be very good. Some we drank straight away and a couple of bottles (plastic milk bottles) went into the freezer but long since drank.
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Best start hanging on to my plastic milk bottles then ;D
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I have kept a couple of bottles of cordial from last year as I find I always seem to want elderflower cordial most just before the flowers appear. I love to sit outside in the sun and have it with fizzy water.
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I am overrun with elder at the moment and have left it now to flower so I can have a go at cordial. Noticed a few flowers coming this week but not fully out yet so I reckon you're about right on time and hopefully can post your experiences to guide me in my first attempts!
I should do nettles too, another crop I'm good at.. but there's something about them and elder that I've never managed to produce anything useful from, I think somewhere I'm convinced the complex structures of the elderflowers will harbour some creepy crawly thing I miss and end up consuming..
You'd not end up eating beasties, promise :thumbsup: At the end of the steeping process (a week for nettles) you need to strain the cordail. I did it with a sieve, then a tea strainer (in the absence of anything more suitable) but I'll be buying a jelly bag or muslin for the next attempt ;) You should go for it, the nettle one is lovely :yum:
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Flowers are out in Midlothian
Dans
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:wave:
Hello from today's newbie! I just wanted to come in to say hello to you, I love that this site exists, now finally a chance to share and read things which are interesting.... (and I'm almost certain I won't get the 'rolling-eyeballs' whenever I want to talk about all the great stuff going on outside!)
I've just picked my first Elderflowers of the year here in Arbroath, spring kept us hanging on didn't it? But finally, ping! And here it is....I've mixed this years Elderflower up a bit by combining it with Dog-Rose- it's a taste sensation!
Thanks for having me and great to find you all ;D (hooray)
Marjolie x
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Hi Marjolie :wave:
I can't find mine yet (think I've been looking in the wrong area of woodland ::)) going out to look again tomorrow and taking the quad this time ;)
Mmmm, dog rose :thinking: I'm sure we've got that.......somewhere !
What we do have is an abundance of wild raspberries :yum: But it'll be one mad day of picking them once they're ready to save the birds getting them :innocent:
Cordials are quite exciting aren't they ? Oh how sad that makes me sound - never thought I'd go all hunter/gatherer :roflanim: But I'm getting so into the whole forraging/wild foods side of smallholding, I feel a 'plan' forming (much to OH's terror :excited:)
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If you now enjoy foraging happyhippy you should look at a book my OH gave me - edible wild plants and herbs by Pamela Michael. Got some amazing stuff in it - am currently making Beech leaf Gin (it's gone green after the first week....exciting!)
Oh...and hello Marjolie! :wave:
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Karen,
My elderflowers still aren't out :( so yours may not be either. The tight green buds are begining to look a bit paler though so hopefully shouldn't be long now
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still waiting in North wales :innocent: :innocent: :innocent: :innocent: :innocent: Unbelievable. July!!!!! Ive usually made and drink litres of 'champagne' by now!