This week, our Head Boy, Tom G (Year 6), tells us how he has been foraging for elderflower, in order to make his own elderflower cordial! Find Tom’s recipe below which details what you need to do to make your own delicious cordial at home, using just four ingredients! 

‘Lately, on our daily walks, we have been foraging for elderflower to make into own homemade elderflower cordial. This is the perfect time of year as Elder trees are in flower. The first time we did it, it didn’t taste that good because we used honey instead of sugar and we couldn’t find any citric acid from any shop or chemist. However, eventually, we found some citric acid on Amazon and made five bottles of elderflower cordial! The recipe is easy, you just need to go and find the elderflowers. Hope you enjoy it.

Ingredients

2½ kg white sugar – granulated or caster

2 unwaxed lemons

20 elderflower heads, stalks trimmed

85g citric acid

Method

Put the sugar and 1.5 litres of water into a large saucepan. Gently heat, without boiling, until the sugar has dissolved. Give it a stir occasionally. Zest the lemons using a potato peeler, then slice the lemons.

Once the sugar has dissolved, bring the pan of syrup to the boil, then turn off the heat. Fill a washing up bowl with cold water. Give the flowers a gentle wash to remove any dirt or bugs. Lift flowers out, gently shake and transfer to the syrup along with the lemons, zest and citric acid, then stir well.

Cover the pan and leave to infuse for 24 hrs.

Line a colander with a clean towel, then sit it over a large bowl. Ladle in the syrup – let it drip slowly through. Discard the bits left in the towel. Use a funnel and a ladle to fill sterilised bottles (run glass bottles through the dishwasher or wash well with soapy water. Rinse, then leave to dry in a low oven).

The cordial is ready to drink straight away and will keep in the fridge for up to 6 weeks.