RECIPE: ELDERFLOWER SYRUP AND LEMONADE

Blessedly, our trusty elder is in bloom and we get to harvest the miraculous elderflowers! Will you join us? Because we make a super yummy syrup AND lemonade from these little white flowers and it tastes oh so delicious!

What do you need

• A glass container (with a capacity larger then 1l)

• A basket full of elderflowers; from elderflowers that are collected in a remote location, that smell good and have bloomed fully.

• 1 Organic lemon; organic because the peel goes into our decoction!

• 300g Cane sugar; you can also use regular sugar but, then it's 1k per liter. I choose cane sugar because the flavor comes out less sweet and I personally like it better. If you want to use other sweeteners keep in mind the shelf life. This is because sugar serves not only for flavor but, it also gives our syrup a longer shelf-life.

• 1 l Water
  

The steps

Collecting

1. Look for your elderflower in a secluded spot where not too many cars can be seen. Also make sure you pick the right elder which is the Sambucus Nigra. This is also the most common one so don't be too worried! Did you find an elder that has beautiful perfect blossoms (as described below in the photo with 'ready')? Super! The next step is to cut off a small screen as close as possible to the edge of the split but far enough so they won't fall apart (as described below with the scissors)! You will thus obtain a beautiful basket full of delicious smelling blossoms!

The preparation

2. Now we are going to clean the elderflowers. And no, I absolutely do not do this with water! That's a no-go because then the flavoring namely the pollen comes off... We obviously don't want that so we're just going to leave the screens for half an hour after harvesting (that way most of the bugs will already run away) and after we're going to gently pat or shake the screens out so the rest of the bugs will slide off by themselves. It really doesn't hurt if some small insects remain because eventually we are going to filter the elder infusion anyway. In fact, because of the mesh cloth, they have little chance of ending up in our delicious syrup.

3. Take your glass container, add half an organic lemon that's not peeled. Next are the screens. Place them on top of each other but don't push too hard. Still give them a little space so that when you shake the jar they can still move a bit! After this, add the other half of the organic lemon!

4. Pour water over the lemon and elderflowers up to the top of the container.

5. Seal the jug and let the mixture rest for 2 to 3 days. I personally put the container outside under a shelter.

After 2 to 3 days

6. Finally! We can start using the decoction/infusion to further prepare our syrup. First of all, I strain the mixture we've infused with a muslin cloth and strainer. Meanwhile, I also measure how many liters we have left.

7. I have 1 liter of the macerate left, and since I add 300g of cane sugar per liter, about 300g was enough for this particular recipe because 400g was definitely a little too sweet for me. But, you can always taste and add some sugar if needed of course!

8. I bring the decoction to a light boil and let it simmer for a while.

9. Now you can dispense this delicious homemade elder syrup into glass bottles. It is best to do this while the syrup is still hot.

Elderflower lemonade

10. When cooled, you can use the syrup as the base for your elderflower lemonade drink, which you make by then adding sparkling water! Et voila! Done! ;-) Enjoy!